Report questions viability and environmental benefits of plastic chemical recycling
Report commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) reviews chemical recycling of plastic waste; finds the technical feasibility, environmental benefits, and economic viability of the technology are not sufficiently demonstrated; excessive subsidies or investments may lock-in environmentally unfavorable processes and infrastructure.
A recent report by Peter Quicker from the University of Cologne discusses the status, potential, and risks of chemical recycling of plastic waste. The report was commissioned by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and published in May 2024. The author explains that chemical recycling is not yet a state-of-the-art technology, that its ability to deal with contaminated plastic waste is limited in practice, and that the environmental benefits of the process are often overestimated due to unrealistic assumptions.