Alumni Action Alert: "Chemical recycling" in 2021??
Many alumni asked us over the years for more opportunities to get engaged in important issues. Now we send an Alumni Action Alert each month on a particular issue or campaign The Public Interest Network is working on, along with some actions that you can take to help protect the environment, public health or the public interest.
Photo credit: Blake Thornberry via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Quick action: Submit a comment to the EPA before the 12/23 deadline to stop the plastic to fuel pipeline.
Context: Every stage of the life cycle of plastic is toxic -- it's made from oil and gas, it harms our wildlife in the form of pollution, and it dirties our public lands. Now, an additional step in that toxic life cycle is on the verge of going big. Industry has touted a process marketed as "chemical" or "advanced" recycling -- which claims to break plastic down into its component molecules to be made into new plastic -- as a solution to the plastic crisis.
However, a number of reports by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and others reveal that the process touted as "advanced recycling" is by and large the opposite. Instead, facilities are primarily heating plastic and turning the leftovers into fossil fuels to be burned. It's a process that emits harmful toxins and leaves us with even more air and climate pollution. On top of that, it will only strengthen the demand for disposable, non-recyclable plastic products. We should be shifting our economy away from burning fuels and instead move towards a circular economy where we don't need to make more stuff, produce more waste and harm our health and environment.
Environment America and U.S. PIRG are working on many campaigns working to reduce our use of plastic, like the Wildlife over Waste and Beyond Plastics campaigns advocating for single-use plastics bans across the country. Additionally, Environment Georgia is working on the ground to organize people to speak out against a proposal to build the world's largest plastic-to-fuel facility in Macon, Georgia.
Right now, the EPA is soliciting public comments on whether they should regulate these chemical facilities using the same standards applied to incineration under the Clean Air Act, and has extended the comment period to December 23. We need to act quickly and show the EPA that there is overwhelming public support to regulate "chemical recycling" like its evil twin, incineration.
Actions:
Write a letter to the editor (LTE) of your local paper. Click here to get started and find newspapers in your area. In case you need a refresher, here's a how-to on LTE writing on page 51 of the Student PIRG's Activist Toolkit. And if your LTE gets published, please be sure to let us know!
If you want to help out with the effort in Georgia to stop the proposal to build the world's largest plastic-to-fuel facility in Macon, simply reach out to us and we will connect you with U.S. PIRG Zero Waste Campaign Director Alex Truelove and Environment Georgia State Director Jennette Gayer.
