PepsiCo, Unilever cite need for all recycling to meet goals

A pair of large consumer brand companies see chemical recycling as an important component in eventually meeting their sustainability goals.

Both PepsiCo Inc. and Unilever plc, which feature some of the world's most well-known brands and use plenty of plastic packaging, view chemical recycling as an emerging approach that still needs plenty of support to ultimately succeed.

But the companies also believe chemical recycling, sometimes called advanced recycling, as an important complement to mechanical recycling that currently dominates the plastic recycling industry.

Clarence Sequeira is senior manager sustainable materials and technology for PepsiCo global research and development.

"It should be said that mechanical recycled PET is, of course, certainly preferable. But why is that? It has 60 percent less GHG compared to virgin PET," he said during a presentation at the recent Plastic Packaging Summit organized by the Plastics Industry Association trade group.

"But there is a problem. And the problem is that, for one, mechanical recycling can only accept feedstocks that are clean and essentially clear PET. This material is in high demand from all of the brand owner commitments," Sequeira said during a virtual presentation.

"These are very aggressive goals and in order to accomplish that the only way possible would be to use a complimentary approach of both mechanical and chemical recycling," he said.

Also some of that clean and clear PET already is diverted from the packaging industry to the textile and carpet industries. "It's a battle to get sufficient material," he said.

But that's where chemical recycling can play a part.

Diverting contaminated plastics to chemical recycling facilities — material that would otherwise be thrown away — would create more recycled supply at a time when companies around the world are pledging to increase their use of reclaimed plastics.

Unilever has laid out a set of ambitious environmental goals including making all packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. The company also will cut its use of virgin plastic in half and collect and process more plastic than is used by that date.

"Recycling is a really important part of how we will achieve our targets and our starting point is the use of mechanical recycling," said Colin Kerr, global packaging technology director for Unilever.

But Kerr said Unilever also recognizes there are "a number of limitations" with mechanical recycling, including considerations involving material grade, odor, color and consistency.

"For that reason, we recognize and believe firmly that advanced recycling or chemical recycling actually has a really important part to play to complement what we can do with mechanical recycling," Kerr said.

Chemical recycling uses processes to reduce polymers back to monomers before reconstituting. This creates virgin-like quality and differs from mechanical recycling that maintaining polymers throughout the process.

While Kerr said Unilever believes in the importance of chemical recycling, he also warned against diverting material best suited for mechanical recycling. Chemical recycling is best suited for hard-to-recycled resins, he said.

A big challenge for chemical recycling is proving support in that approach to drive investments that will create scale. "People need to be confident that hey should make those investments," Kerr said.

Companies also need to signal they are interested in using plastics recaptured by chemical recycling to give the market more confidence and investment, he said.

Because chemical recycling creates monomers, that approach is capable of creating formulations that can be uniquely suited for different applications, Sequeira said.

Kerr said some key criteria must be met to make chemical recycling successful.

"We really want to make sure advanced recycling as a process is not competing with mechanical recycling," he said. "The focus in terms of feedstocks from our perspective should be on hard to recycle materials. In other words, those materials that currently are rejected from mechanical recycling processes."

Materials being chemically recycled also need to be fully traceable through third-party certification. "That's a really important part of the credibility associated with being able to access and use these sorts of materials," Kerr said.

Unilever also believes that the lifecycle impact of using chemical recycling must be lower than the use of fossil fuels in plastic production that is being replaced.

Closing the plastic loop also is key to making chemical recycling successful instead of using the process to create fuel or energy, "which for us is not a circular process," Kerr said.