Public supports chemical recycling, pollsters say

Orlando, Fla. — Favorable public opinion polling on chemical recycling, with support above 90 percent, is creating an opportunity for the plastics industry to press its case.

At least that was the analysis of two prominent opinion researchers — one Democrat and one Republican — as they dissected polling data at a recent American Chemistry Council conference on the technology, also known as advanced recycling.

"A lot of our corporate clients, they're looking for those 80/20 issues," said Brenda Gianiny, founding principal of Republican polling firm Axis Research. "If I can get 80 percent of the public to agree with me, I'd be in such a great spot. It's very difficult.

"You've got a 95/5 here. We're not used to seeing data like this," she said. "And it's bipartisan."

Gianiny and Cornell Belcher, president of Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies, presented polling data showing support for chemical recycling in the mid-90s among Democrats, Republicans and independents.

They called that a strength even if, they said, the polling shows challenges because only a little more than 20 percent of the public was initially familiar with the term.

Gianiny said the data was from polling of 1,200 voters nationwide that ACC provided. They spoke at ACC's inaugural Innovation and Circularity Summit: Advanced Recycling and the Future of Plastics, held June 28-29 in Orlando, Fla.

Belcher, former chief pollster for the Democratic National Committee and a pollster for both of Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, told the audience the numbers put the industry in a strong position with the public.

"You're in the catbird seat and they have to bring you down," Belcher said. "Define yourselves. You have a tremendous opportunity."

In their comments, both pollsters made apparent references to environmental campaigns like an $85 million effort started in 2022 by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to slow plastics and petrochemical growth, curb emissions and fund environmental groups advocating for laws to address plastic waste and support fenceline communities.

"I think that when you're starting to see the attacks that come from that $100 million or whatever … talk about jobs you're creating in the community, talk about the economic output that you're driving, talk about the innovation that you're doing," said Gianiny, who was the primary pollster for George Bush's 2004 presidential campaign. She also does work for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and companies including Walmart and Anheuser-Busch, and she said in her comments she did work with focus groups for ACC.

"Stay positive in how you respond to those and to Cornell's point, getting out there first would be a huge advantage," she said.

Other polls around plastics and the environment, however, have found significant concerns around the impact of plastic waste.

Suzanne Shelton, a leading sustainability and marketing consultant who builds campaigns for companies and industry groups, regularly polls public opinion and finds people "freaked out" about plastic waste.

Shelton, who is CEO of the 30-person firm Shelton Group, told a Plastics News conference last year that her research indicates the public won't be receptive to industry messages unless it believes that ocean plastic is being taken care of and real work is being done to fix recycling. She said the public is increasingly skeptical that recycling works as advertised.

The discussion at the ACC event comes amid a larger public battle over chemical recycling.

ACC and other industry groups submitted data recently to the Federal Trade Commission's review of its environmental marketing Green Guides, saying that significant majorities of the public believe that products made with recycled plastic from chemical recycling should be allowed to be labeled recycled content.

They want FTC to endorse that position and allow it to be used in environmental marketing, but environmental groups want the commission to limit ad claims around chemical recycling.

As well, plastics industry groups have been engaged in a multiyear campaign in state legislatures for laws to regulate chemical recycling as manufacturing, rather than solid waste disposal, and it's a point of debate in Congress and in federal agencies.

Through the 1990s and early 2000s, plastics industry groups spent tens of millions of dollars a year on advertising campaigns to boost the public perception of plastic. But those mass media advertising campaigns were dramatically scaled back about 15 years ago.

At the ACC conference, both pollsters compared public opinion around chemical recycling to organic food 15 or 20 years ago, calling it an area open to building consumer acceptance.

"What was surprising for me is the opportunity," Belcher said. "Consumers, they want [chemical recycling], they just don't know it yet. You have a fantastic opportunity to get in this space and define and drive the need and desire for this."

In particular, the pollsters said simpler messages like keeping materials out of landfills, creating jobs and making the U.S. less dependent on foreign products resonate.

"These arguments resonate really strongly — economic output, more jobs, not being reliant on foreign powers," Belcher said.

They also said the polling shows that a significant percentage of voters would prefer to focus on recycling, rather than banning plastic products or limiting plastic production.

"It's not even close — consumers much prefer focusing on recycling, recyclability, than they do over outright bans," Gianiny said.

Polling by environmental groups, however, points to opposite conclusions.

A February poll from the group Oceana said that more than 80 percent of U.S. voters want companies to limit plastic packaging, and 73 percent favor limits on plastics production facilities.

Still, the pollsters at the ACC event said the data points to opportunities for the plastics industry.

In response to a question about counteracting messages from environmental groups, Gianiny referred to a "former ex-mayor," an apparent reference to the work by Bloomberg's charitable foundation, and Belcher suggested industry should act forcefully to shape public opinion.

"I underline this point: You have to drive this in order to inoculate yourself from those who want to drive it someplace else," he said. "It really is the fundamentals of a campaign. You start off with tremendous opportunity. Take advantage of that opportunity. Drive the narrative."