WWF Releases New Position: Chemical Recycling Implementation Principles

Today, as part of the No Plastic in Nature vision, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released Chemical Recycling Implementation Principles. These principles aim to help decision makers determine if and how chemical recycling—an emerging technology with unknown environmental and social outcomes—should be pursued as a plastic waste mitigation tactic.  Alix Grabowski, director of plastic and material science at WWF said:

“Even as technologies advance, we can’t recycle our way out of the growing plastic waste crisis. Instead of just focusing on recycling, we should prioritize strategies like reducing our overall single-use plastic consumption and scaling up reuse, which offer the best opportunity to achieve the widescale change we need.

“For a technology like chemical recycling to be part of a sustainable material management system, we must carefully look at how its designed and implemented and whether or not it offers environmental benefits over the status quo, adheres to strong social safeguards, and truly contributes to advancing our circular economy. These principles are designed to do exactly that.”