Author: Lauren

A recent guest opinion piece in The Post-Standard newspaper (web address syracuse.com) discussed advanced recycling of plastics. That article can be found here. In an effort to disseminate accurate scientific and engineering information, Professor Marco J. Castaldi has written a letter to the editor in response to the original opinion, specifically drawing distinction between various technologies which are sometimes conflated, misunderstood, and/or mischaracterized. The full text of this letter is reprinted immediately below.

---

To the Editor:

Recent op-ed writers went to great lengths to mischaracterize emergent technologies that are developing to manage nearly 90% of plastics that do not get recycled today (”Plastic burning ‘has no place in climate-forward NY’ (Guest Opinion by Judith Enck and Tok M. Oyewole),” March 14, 2022).

Advanced recycling technologies focus on hard-to-recycle plastics such as flexible pouches, films and tubes, converting them back into their raw materials to be used to make new plastics. This process allows plastics to be recycled each time a product is disposed by the consumer.

The writers call this “burning,” which is completely incorrect. Their characterization represents a clear misunderstanding of technologies and thermodynamic principles. Typical advanced recycling technologies operate with no oxygen or air to convert post-use plastics to a liquid or gaseous state. Incineration destroys waste materials by burning, without recovering energy or materials. This is entirely different from advanced recycling.

Advanced recycling technologies today are being deployed by both large plastics companies and multiple entrepreneurial enterprises to “remake” once non-recyclable plastics. These technologies will divert non-recycled plastics from landfills and the environment.

Advanced recycling enables the creation of new plastics from used plastics, displacing the need to extract fossil feedstock. Importantly, they operate like other manufacturing facilities, subject to federal, state and local regulations. A recent study found air emissions from a typical advanced recycling facility to be roughly the same as familiar facilities such as hospitals, universities and food manufacturers.

Innovative technologies need time to mature and often are confused with existing ones, and the op-ed authors have added to that confusion. It is not helpful when mischaracterizations and poor understanding are disseminated. As New York state considers how to recover its non-recycled plastics, it would be sensible to listen to scientists and engineers who understand advanced plastics recycling technologies.

Marco J. Castaldi, Ph.D.

Professor, Chemical Engineering Department

Director, Earth System Science and Environmental Engineering Program

The City College of New York

New York City

The Sustainably Speaking podcast series hosted by Joshua Baca from America’s Plastic Makers features conversations with key figures, including those in industry, government, academia, and the consumer circle, who are helping to create a more sustainable future. Episode 7 features Rice University’s Dr. Rachel Meidl and CCNY’s Dr. Marco Castaldi as they dive into the science behind advanced recycling. The podcast episode, titled Advanced Recycling: Combining Science and Sustainability, can be heard here.

Updated July 27, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

You may recall that we postponed our Fall 2020 EEC/WTERT bi-Annual Conference to this coming Fall 2021. Since that postponement there have been a few developments that require us to again postpone our meeting to Fall 2022. Currently, there is no firm new date but we are excited to share that the conference will occur in the Fall of 2022 as an in-person event. We have delayed this decision for as long as possible to incorporate the most updated and current information. New York has recently lifted all COVID-19 restrictions across all commercial and social settings, and several large (>800 people) events are set to take place here in NYC in the near future. We will monitor these upcoming events to provide us with some insight on the ability and willingness of people to travel and interact with colleagues from around the world. City College is also set to go to an in-person course structure for the upcoming school year, and by the end of Fall 2021 we will know how well that performed.

In addition, there have been some recent developments in the U.S. regarding interest in using MSW for energy and materials recovery. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has announced funding to several teams focused on advancing waste-to-energy technology. These teams are a part of ARPA-E’s Monetizing Innovative Disposal Applications and Solutions (MIDAS) and Waste into X (WiX) topics. MIDAS teams are developing technologies for the recovery and reclamation of critical materials (CMs) and other valuable elements from Municipal Solid Waste Incineration (MSWI). WiX projects are working to advance the improvement of the physical or chemical properties of MSWI ash into valuable products. Additional information on these projects can be found on the ARPA-E website. Similar efforts are also being developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). These projects are just getting underway this year; therefore, we anticipate that our postponement will yield some abstract submissions from that program enabling us to expand the presentation and networking.

Finally, we are committed to ensure that we can have the international participation that our conference normally enjoys. For example, in 2018 there were a total of 12 countries represented that spanned several time zones (Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Korea, Sudan, UK and US). Additionally, an important component of our conference is the person-to-person interaction that allows attendees to make new connections and collaborations that normally would not occur in other settings. That interaction cannot happen in a virtual environment and the spontaneous discussions on the scientific topics also cannot occur via an on-line format.

Therefore, please look toward to Fall 2022 to be in New York City for the bi-annual EEC/WTERT conference. We will have a new call for abstracts and will provide updated information throughout the year.

Sincerely,

The EEC Team

Congratulations to Dr. Snehesh Ail on his appointment to Associate Director of the Earth Engineering Center. The full title post, highlighting the accomplishments of Dr. Ail, is below.

The latest publishing by Dr. Marco J. Castaldi has received wide news coverage for providing the most up-to-date scientific data on waste-to-energy technologies. The report provides an extensive repository of data on waste-to-energy research which can be used to understand and contextualize the complex life cycle of municipal solid waste, as well as to determine the evidence based benefits of waste-to-energy. This report was covered by News 12 Long Island’s Geoff Bansen, found here. For more information about this important topic, please read the original report at this link.