Recyclers see plastics treaty as ‘huge' chance for change

Paris — Recycling companies came to the plastics treaty talks looking for policy changes to bring investment and press their point that they see recycling working, despite its challenges.

For the U.S.-based Association of Plastic Recyclers, that includes wanting the treaty to include robust extended producer responsibility rules to collect more plastic and push for global standards to design packaging for better recyclability.

APR attended the talks, held May 29 to June 2 at United Nations offices in Paris, for the first time after not attending the treaty's opening session in Uruguay in November.

Kate Bailey, the group's chief policy officer, said treaty language can improve U.S. plastics recycling and bring clarity to investment in plastics recycling.

"In the U.S. in particular, we lag behind in the amount of recycled plastic we are collecting," she said in an interview at the talks. "Our members could recycle 50 percent more bottles if we had access to them using existing infrastructure. We have plants that are not running at 100 percent capacity. Collection is the key for us."

Bailey said the treaty will also drive discussions that could narrow the big gaps among different U.S. states in recycling rates.

"I would say that the U.S. recycling system is abysmal in some places and it's working incredibly well in some places," she said. "We have states like Oregon with a very strong bottle bill recycling 80 percent, possibly more, of their PET bottles.

"We know other states are 5-10 percent," Bailey said. "The difference between states is tremendous. And so one of the key messages I think for the U.S. is we know how to do better and we know that recycling can scale and it can scale relatively quickly based on proven solutions."

The group also supports bottle deposits and recycled-content mandates, she said.

Bailey said she sees the treaty as a "huge opportunity" for faster change in the United States.

"To be able to speak to the realities of recycling and what we know how to do already, and how we just need some of those policies and investment levers to drive those changes forward, that's what I'm most excited about," she said. "And to break through that narrative that recycling isn't working at all."

Not everyone would agree with that.

Greenpeace released a report May 24, on the eve of the talks, that pointed to peer-reviewed research suggesting that plastics recycling increases the toxicity of the plastics and it said that with only 9 percent of plastics recycled globally, countries should focus on phasing down plastic production.

Negotiations are in the early stages.

The weeklong Paris session was just the second of five planned to try to reach a final agreement in late 2024. More than 1,700 diplomats and observers from civil society and industry were on hand in France.

Bailey said the treaty will lead to changes in the U.S.

"The U.N. is a big process, and I really do see a huge opportunity for this to accelerate change in the U.S.," she said. "I think the symbolism of the treaty itself … is just a huge signal, especially to all levels of government and companies, that we're going to make some changes."

APR sees the most promise in the treaty's early work for global design standards and EPR.

"We're very excited to see producer responsibility being called out as a fundamental mechanism to increase the supply of recycling for plastics and other materials," she said. "That's something we've been championing across the states this year and last year."

She called the treaty a "watershed moment" for the consensus emerging from 170 countries sending diplomats to Paris to address plastics pollution, even if many disagreements remain over the best steps to do that.

Bailey predicted discussions around reducing "problematic plastics" will also pick up in the treaty.

That's been a contentious concept outside of the treaty. The U.S. Plastics Pact last year created a list of packaging applications and some materials to move away from but plastics materials makers have questioned the approach.

"I feel like this is a big debate in the U.S. as well," Bailey said. "A key part of the message from the treaty negotiations has been that a main goal is to eliminate some plastic uses overall, not just problematic plastics, but microplastics. They've talked about the microbeads in personal care products.

"Elimination is a core element, followed by circulating and recycling of plastics that we do use, and then mitigation for what is already in the environment," she said.

Bailey said more work is needed with problematics, particularly in discussions ahead of the third formal negotiating session planned for November in Kenya.

"I've heard several calls for intersessional work, meaning between INC2 and INC3, to really better define what 'problematic' means," she said, suggesting the diplomats could look to work from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and its affiliated plastic pacts.

She said she hoped APR's design guides could play a role.

Like the Uruguay round, the Paris talks included discussions about the health impacts of plastic additives and components, including the role of recycling. Bailey said recyclers will be paying attention.

In an interview ahead of the Paris meeting, she said recycling companies want more information about additives in recycled plastics, although she said there's a "huge knowledge gap" around potential health impacts.

"As recyclers, we struggle with the amount of chemicals and the different additives that are added," Bailey said. "That makes recycling more challenging in many cases and there's not great documentation, if there's any at all, around what are the additives. … Recycling can be improved with better traceability and better understanding of some of these additives."

Other groups in Paris were urging that the talks look at the health impacts from chemicals in plastics, including in recycling.

At a May 31 side event, a representative of the Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty pointed to studies showing chemical leakage from recycling food packaging.

"Reusing and recycling plastic food packaging leads to increased migration of hazardous chemicals. I think this is a really important point," said Jane Muncke, managing director of the Food Packaging Forum, a Swiss nongovernmental group. "The normal and intended use of plastic food packaging leads to the generation of microplastics. This is something to really pay attention to."

The scientists group said it had about 40 researchers on hand in Paris to answer questions from diplomats. It released a policy brief saying plastic chemicals can "impede the transition to a circular plastics economy."

"Hazardous chemicals can build up in plastics during recycling because new substances are added in each cycle," SCEPT said. Among 13,000 chemicals used in plastics, 3,200 have some form of hazardous classification.

Other side events in Paris looked at research on additives in plastics, including a May 29 event that saw the plastics industry and others debate the topic, including calls for more transparency around chemicals in plastics.

Bailey said APR was looking for clarity in the treaty to have better packaging design address additives, and she suggested evidence does not point to recycling processes as accumulating or concentrating additives.

She said plastic recycling companies don't design packaging or choose the composition of materials they recycle.

Still, she said in an interview in Paris, on the last day of the talks, it's clear the treaty will have a strong health component.

"Another takeaway to me is that this is really not just about plastics in the environment, but the impact of plastics on health," she said. "It's a really strong message coming out."

Some plastics recycling companies and other associations also weighed in.

In written comments ahead of the Paris round, PetStar, a PET bottle recycling firm in Mexico City owned by Coca-Cola Mexico and its bottlers, pointed diplomats to the 2020 "Breaking the Wave" report from Pew Charitable Trusts and urged a focus on bottle-to-bottle recycling.

The company, which said in 2021 it operated the world's largest PET food-grade recycling plants, also said any solutions in "southern countries" need to include waste pickers, those who collect scrap materials on the street.

As well, the Brussels-based group Plastics Recyclers Europe released a statement ahead of the Paris round encouraging the treaty to support recycling, which it said can have 90 percent less carbon dioxide emissions compared with virgin materials and help mitigate climate change.

"Incentivizing plastics recycling paired with increased collection must remain high on the agenda," PRE said in its May 26 statement. "This will allow the replacement of virgin plastic production while also diverting plastic waste from landfills."