Author: Colin Staub
Although there are no chemical recycling facilities currently operating in the Pine Tree State, any starting up in the future will be considered “chemical plastic processing” operations subject to solid waste facility permitting, and their process will not be considered “recycling,” lawmakers recently voted. First introduced in April 2023, Maine’s Legislative Document 1660 is written as “an act to ensure proper regulation of chemical plastic processing,” which is commonly known as chemical recycling, “advanced” or even “molecular” recycling. All terms refer to a group of technologies that process scrap plastic chemically into its basic components (typically its monomers) rather than mechanically, through shredding, washing and re-pelletizing.