“Chemical Recycling” Facilities Pose Risks to Workers and Communities

 WASHINGTON– “Chemical recycling” facilities have large amounts of carcinogens and other toxic chemicals on site, according to a new analysis from NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), based on public records obtained from five of the largest facilities nationwide.

“Chemical recycling won’t solve our plastic crisis,” said Renée Sharp, NRDC’s director of plastics and petrochemical advocacy. “It increases risks to our health and safety and puts communities in harm's way, while failing to make a meaningful dent in the plastics crisis. What we really need to do is limit plastic production and use.”

Read the new report: Behind the “Chemical Recycling” Curtain: Public Record Requests Reveal Risky Chemicals at Facilities.

“Chemical recycling,” which the industry has tried to promote as an answer to the plastic crisis, mostly involves incineration of plastic. It largely fails to recycle plastic. The U.S. plastics recycling rate remains stagnant at a mere 5 percent, while global plastic use is projected to triple by 2060. 

Public records requests obtained from state agencies in four states –Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, and Ohio – found risky chemicals on site that raise risks of spills, fires, and explosions, endangering workers and communities. Amounts range from about 60,000 to more than 3 million pounds for any given facility. The dangers do not stop at facilities; hazardous chemicals are shipped to and from them, creating risks of spills and incidents in all communities that trucks and trains pass through. 

One reported chemical is sulfuric acid, which is a corrosive chemical designated as an “extremely hazardous substance” that can “cause serious irreversible health effects from accidental releases.” The “chemical recycling” facility in Brightmark (IN) reported, on average, over 15,000 pounds of sulfuric acid on-site every day. In January 2024, a sulfuric acid spill at Brightmark discharged to the Ashley, Indiana, municipal wastewater treatment facility, which had to use hundreds of pounds of chemicals and thousands of gallons of sludge over the next month to counteract the effects of the acid and return to compliance.

"The thousands of pounds of toxic, flammable and explosive chemicals on site at Alterra is a great moral injustice to our community. This facility is not a safe way to manage plastic waste and its permit should not be renewed. To experiment with our lives for such a failed technology, adds insult to injury in a neighborhood that is a century old industrial sacrifice zone,” said Beth Vild of The Big Love Network in Akron, Ohio.

Four of the five facilities with data presented in the brief use pyrolysis, a form of incineration. used by most “chemical recycling” facilities  in the United States. Pyrolysis creates a toxic and carcinogenic product called pyrolysis oil, which is one of the hazardous chemicals reported at facilities. Pyrolysis oil also poses other health hazards, including reproductive toxicity, acute toxicity, mutagenicity to germ cells, and serious eye damage. 

As these risks continue to grow, federal policy could further weaken pollution restrictions. In March 2026, the Trump administration proposed exempting pyrolysis incinerators from Clean Air Act protections. If finalized, it means that more “chemical recycling” facilities can operate without protections against hazardous air pollution for surrounding communities. 

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).