Innovation is the missing link in CA’s fight against plastic waste

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California has long been a leader in shaping the country’s environmental policy. The state’s bold actions and market influence have sparked broader movements. From catalytic converters to electric vehicles, these groundbreaking policies leveraged technology in service of environmental sustainability. The same approach should apply to California’s landmark plastic waste legislation, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, or SB 54.

By 2032, SB 54 requires a 25% reduction in single-use plastic packaging and mandates that 65% of such packaging actually be recycled. Today, far too much plastic waste goes unrecycled. Each year, 40 million tons of plastic are disposed of in the U.S., including 7.9 million tons of polyester (PET) packaging and textiles. Virtually no polyester textiles can currently be recycled, and only 23% of PET packaging is recycled by traditional mechanical recycling. Even less is turned back into food-grade packaging. That’s because mechanical recyclers only handle clean, clear polyester like beverage bottles and certain food containers. The rest is sent to landfills or incinerators.

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By continuing to depend on mechanical recycling alone, California will never achieve these ambitious and important recycling targets, and research shows the state’s voters are eager to find ways for this legislation to succeed. According to a recent survey by Stagwell’s The Harris Poll, more than 8-in-10 California voters support SB 54, and 63% want the state to expand and improve its recycling infrastructure to find ways to give a new life to plastics. To achieve these high expectations, new solutions are needed to address the growing plastic waste crisis, and innovative technology like Eastman’s can pick up where mechanical recycling leaves off.

Eastman gives new life to hard-to-recycle polyester, such as colored shampoo bottles, takeout containers, textiles and fruit containers. Unlike other recycling technologies that produce large amounts of industrial fuel from plastic waste, approximately 90% of what Eastman processes is turned into plastic for new products, and all of it is food-grade quality. The remaining 10% — largely colorants, additives, and contaminants removed during the purification process – are safely managed or sold. We are aligned with environmental advocates who believe recycling only counts when waste plastic is turned into new plastic, not fuel.

Our team of experts includes more than 50 PhDs who spent years developing the technology to build our first recycling facility, which is the largest of its kind in the world. With that facility now fully operational, and another under construction, Eastman has committed to spending more than $2 billion to significantly increase the amount of plastic that can be recycled. Throughout this process we have followed principles modeled on those supported by environmental organizations.

These include building a closed-loop system that’s complementary to mechanical recycling by processing waste that currently ends up in landfills and ensuring our technology is better for the environment than producing new plastics from fossil fuels. This means minimizing greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the burden of hazardous substances that can negatively impact communities and the environment, and operating at lower temperatures than other chemical recycling processes.

Our Kingsport, TN facility has been operating since early 2024 and is on track to process the equivalent of 11 billion plastic bottles that would otherwise be burned or buried each year, all while emitting 20-30% fewer greenhouse gases than producing new plastic, and reducing other emissions by more than 70%. With support from the Department of Energy, our newest facility in Longview, TX will cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90%. And we will continue to innovate. Our business depends on it.

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However, the current plan to implement SB 54 puts innovation and environmental progress in jeopardy. Eastman is known as a chemical recycler because of the technologies we use, but not all chemical recycling is the same, and we welcome thoughtful standards and increased transparency for plastic manufacturing and recycling. It’s the right thing for California, for markets that will follow its lead, and for our business.

California voters want bold action on plastic waste. Dismissing recycling technologies like ours is the environmental equivalent of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The circular economy envisioned by SB 54 requires not just reduction and reuse but also cutting-edge, environmentally efficient, recycling processes. It’s time for us all to move beyond recycling what’s easy and start recycling what isn’t. California needs regulations that make this possible.