6 Conditions for Chemical Recycling
Ecopreneur.eu, the European Sustainable Business Federation, advocates to limit EU support for chemical recycling to applications meeting 6 conditions including being net-CO2 positive.
Recycling is key for the circular economy. Chemical recycling could one day become a trouble-shooter-solution for any remaining unrecyclable applications and replace incineration. However, it is not yet a sustainable technology. Ecopreneur.eu has concerns about linear economy lock-ins, high CO2 emissions, competition with mechanical recycling, lack of scale to replace virgin materials, low quality, toxic residues, and large investments being drawn away from SMEs going circular.
Ecopreneur.eu therefore advocates to support the development of chemical recycling only if net-carbon-positive, used for otherwise unrecyclable residues, with maximum quality, scalable, at costs reflecting the waste hierarchy, and matched by equal support for SMEs on circular design.
For the full position paper click here.
