Trump Admin Opts for Tighter Air Rules on Plastics Recycling
A controversial chemical recycling process will remain under more protective air regulations — a reversal from the first Trump administration's attempts to weaken standards in line with industry pleas.
EPA on Tuesday posted its final rule outlining changes to the performance standards for what are technically known as "other solid waste incinerators," a category covering about 60 trash-burning operations used by prisons, nursing homes and other facilities.
But the agency "will not be taking additional action related to pyrolysis/combustion units in this action," leaving pyrolysis as a "municipal waste combustion unit" under the Clean Air Act.
It's a change of course from President Donald Trump's first term, which in 2020 proposed to remove pyrolysis from its emission guidelines for incineration and recategorize it under the less-protective manufacturing standards — a change chemicals and plastics groups have pushed for. The Biden administration withdrew Trump's proposal in 2023.
Industry groups have pushed development of pyrolysis, one of the technologies under the "chemical" or "advanced" recycling umbrella, over recent years as the innovative new solution for hard-to-recycle plastics that traditional recovery facilities can't handle. The billions of dollars in investments have come in response to growing public scrutiny over pollution from single-use plastics.
But green groups have criticized pyrolysis, which uses high heat to break plastics down to their chemical building blocks for future reuse, as an evasive, "dangerous and dirty" process with ambiguous efficacy.
The American Chemistry Council, an influential trade association lobbying for a majority of the nation's biggest names in plastics production, has spearheaded the push to categorize all chemical recycling processes — primarily pyrolysis and gasification — under manufacturing instead of incineration regulations.
ACC's lobbying push has been successful in at least half of U.S. states, which have enacted laws to regulate the new recycling technologies under less restrictive air quality rules.
Ross Eisenberg, head of plastics at ACC and president of America’s Plastic Makers, said the trade association does "not believe the classification of pyrolysis discussed in the OSWI rule is applicable to the type of pyrolysis used in advanced recycling of plastics."
"We urge EPA to clarify that advanced recycling is a manufacturing process, not a form of solid waste incineration, and should be regulated accordingly," he continued.
The updated rule posted Tuesday comes almost five years after the agency released the initial proposal containing the pyrolysis exemption.
In dropping the planned carveout after receiving what were described as “significant adverse comments,” EPA in 2023 said it would be inappropriate for those facilities “to become unregulated emissions sources during the time required for our analysis of pyrolysis/combustion units to be completed, particularly if the Agency ultimately concludes that regulation is needed.”
The new rule follows a 2016 Sierra Club lawsuit alleging that EPA was long past statutory deadlines for updating the incinerator regulations. Under the final settlement terms to the suit, brought in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, EPA had to sign off on the final version by the end of the month.
Jim Pew, an Earthjustice attorney involved in the litigation, had previously said it would be illegal for EPA to reinstate the pyrolysis exemption. He declined further comment on the issue Tuesday.
In the updated regulations, the agency found no new “cost-effective” pollution controls for the approximately 60 plants now included in the “other solid waste incinerators” category. but took other steps — such as eliminating an exemption for unpermitted emissions stemming from startups, shutdowns and equipment breakdowns — expected to reduce pollution relative to an earlier baseline.
But under its complex classification framework for different types of trash-burning operations, the agency also opted to shift 29 plants that had previously been covered by more stringent regulations for commercial and industrial incinerators into the “other” category.
The change will lead to about 11 tons of added annual emissions, according to an EPA estimate included in the rule. Most of that will be the particulates often dubbed soot, but the total also includes the toxic metals mercury and cadmium.
Overall, the new rule will save industry about $12 million per year, a summary says.