Amid recycled-content push, some see EPA skepticism on chemical recycling in new Safer Choice rules

The Environmental Protection Agency's eco-label Safer Choice program will now require 15 percent recycled content in plastic packaging, but one industry group is responding to the decision by urging Congress to set higher standards for plastic packaging generally.

New revisions to the program also appear, in the eyes of environmental groups, to make it harder to use chemical recycling to meet that recycled-content goal.

EPA's new version of its Safer Choice program, the first update since 2015, will now require post-consumer content in packaging for companies seeking the certification.

The voluntary program aims to build markets for nontoxic or green chemicals that can be used as ingredients in cleaning products and other goods, allowing them to carry the Safer Choice or Design for Environment logos.

But the latest revision, unveiled Aug. 8, also now adds requirements on packaging such as not having intentionally added PFAS "forever chemicals" or other chemicals of concern, along with recycled content.

The American Chemistry Council said it supports increasing the use of recycled plastic and called 15 percent a “good start.”

But ACC also repeated its call for Congress to pass legislation setting a national standard for 30 percent recycled content by 2030 for plastic packaging, saying that a national approach and infrastructure investments “will help create widespread demand over the narrower scope of Safer Choice.”

"ACC has long advocated for at least that amount, calling for a more substantial 30 percent by 2030, which we believe will stimulate investment in the infrastructure needed to make the recycled material rate a reality," said Adam Peer, ACC's senior director of plastics sustainability. "Recycled content requirements must be supported by collection and sortation infrastructure to be successful."

The new standard does require more recycled content for other materials. Glass packaging must have 25 percent post-consumer recycled content, metal 30 percent and fiber, cardboard and paper 50 percent.

Significantly for plastics packaging, some environmental groups see signs that the new standard is making it harder to use chemical recycling to meet requirements for recycled content.

They say the regulations point to EPA skepticism about some chemical recycling because the agency is not endorsing a technical standard called mass balance for measuring recycled content.

Jan Dell, founder of the Last Beach Cleanup, said that because Safer Choice calls for measuring recycled content "by weight," it means the agency is rejecting mass balance.

"This is a major precedent by the USEPA that they do not approve of mass balance certification to count as recycled content," said Dell, whose group submitted formal comments to EPA on Safer Choice along with Just Zero, Beyond Plastics, Greenpeace, the Center for Biological Diversity and others.

Mass balance systems allow for measuring things like recycled content or green energy in systems where those inputs — like recycled plastic or solar energy — are mixed with conventional feedstock and become an indistinguishable part of a blend.

Environmental groups see mass balance as a shell game, but industry groups say it is essential to the long-term success of chemical recycling because it allows measuring recycled content across complex supply chains.

Opponents of mass balance say it would deceive consumers by allowing companies to claim recycled content in a particular package that may not have it in that package.

The new Safer Choice standard does not mention mass balance directly, and there's a certain amount of tea leaf reading in interpreting the agency's position.

The Safer Choice program is also entirely voluntary and only applies to manufacturers who want to market its certification to consumers.

In a written response to questions from Plastics News, EPA said it had not decided if chemical recycling in all cases should be considered recycling, and it pointed to a previous EPA statement expressing skepticism about using mass balance to measure recycled content.

"EPA has not determined whether some 'chemical recycling' processes should be considered 'recycling' and environmentally preferable," EPA said.

How EPA should think about mass balance was a flashpoint in the public comments the agency received to last year's draft of the Safer Choice regulations.

To clarify its position on mass balance, EPA pointed to skeptical comments it made to the Federal Trade Commission in that agency's ongoing Green Guides rule making.

"EPA does not recommend that the Green Guides promote the mass balance approach as it is not widely implemented or accepted worldwide," EPA said. "The current weighted average calculation allows a producer to buy a certain amount of recycled material, but there is no requirement to use the recycled material.

"Allowing producers to advertise that a product contains 'recycled content' based on the amount of recycled material purchased is deceptive," EPA said. "It would be clearer to focus on calculations that involve the actual amount of material used."

Dell sees the EPA approach in Safer Choice as a potential shift against mass balance.

"Time will tell if this is a milestone turning point against the mass balance credit scheme hoax," she said. "I suspect it is."

Another group that also urged EPA to reject mass balance said the Safer Choice decision, while it sends positive signals, leaves the waters muddy.

"There's a lot of room for the federal government to step in here and do something that's actually binding and have real accountability measures in it," said Jessica Roff, plastics and petrochemical program manager with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.

"But even with these guidelines they have, there's a lot more room for clarification and being very direct about where and how these standards are going to be met," she said. "Without clearly defining that chemical recycling is not going to count for recycled content, any amount of required recycled content are essentially incentivizing using chemical recycling."

Roff said the agency could have stated its position directly in the Safer Choice standard, rather than pointing to comments it made to other agencies that may not carry as much legal weight.

"I think there are some potential positive signals [in Safer Choice] but I want real answers that are clear," she said.

Roff said, for example, that the new Safer Choice program appears to give a lot of flexibility to companies in self-certifying their use of recycled content.

EPA did remove, from an earlier draft version of the standard, a reference to one certification system that uses mass balance, the Recycled Material Standard from the group GreenBlue.

Some environmental groups had complained that RMS appears to allow mass balance and a group of state attorneys general has urged EPA to not endorse industry-led certification systems. The group cited concerns about conflicts of interest and transparency.

In its responses to Safer Choice comments, EPA said it would rely on companies to choose credible certification systems.

"EPA will not include reference to approaches or schemes for tracking or designating recycled content in the standard but will rely on product and packaging manufacturers to choose approaches for determining recycled content levels that are credible and effective," the agency said. "EPA will allow self-attestation of recycled content from packaging suppliers."

The American Chemistry Council, in its statement, did not comment directly on EPA interpretations of mass balance, but called it a widely accepted tool.

"To realize recycled content requirements, a mechanism needs to be in place to account for the recycled feedstock," said ACC's Peer. "Mass balance is a widely accepted accounting tool that would encourage more recycled content in the overall economy."

Dell, however, said mass balance allocation systems in other industries like green electricity are different than those in plastics.

She said using pyrolysis to produce new plastic also produces large amounts of climate-damaging byproducts and waste, something not seen in mass balance certification in other industries.