Joint Letter by 20 Plastics Supply Chain Associations Calling for Mass Balance Fuel-Use Exemption in Chemical Recycling

20 associations in the plastics supply chain, including Cefic, call on EU Member States to urgently adopt mass balance fuel use exempt as the EU harmonised mass balance method for allocating recycled content via chemical recycling. 

Currently, the EU plastics recycling rate is 38% (Eurostat, 2022) while the target for 2025 is 50%. Urgent efforts are required to boost recycling, including increased investment in recycling and collection infrastructure. While mechanical and other physical recycling methods are growing, chemical recycling offers a unique opportunity to support existing efforts and meet recycling goals while increasing recycled content. 

Chemically recycled feedstocks are typically mixed with virgin feedstocks, making their physical separation challenging once they are co-fed into the complex large-scale installations. Therefore, a mass balance chain of custody is necessary to accurately calculate and confirm the recycled content allocated to products.  

Chemical recycling enables the utilization of plastic waste, especially feedstock unsuitable for mechanical recycling, to create new chemicals and plastics. Recent academic research stresses the complementary nature of mechanical, physical, and chemical recycling,  all of which are needed to transition to a circular economy 

Earlier this year, 33 European associations backed mass balance fuel-use exemption to boost chemical recycling and meet recycling targets.