Advanced Recycling Policy

Today's waste. Tomorrow's resource.

Plastics – they make modern life possible. But plastic waste is still a challenge. With rapidly scalable, affordable technologies, we can recycle more with the potential to lower overall societal costs.

That's where advanced recycling can help.

Advanced recycling breaks down plastics to recover their valuable molecules that can be reused to make new products. But we need better policy to help to realize its potential. Smart policy can keep more plastics out of landfills, scale up recycling capacity, and unlock investment in U.S. manufacturing.

ExxonMobil has the resources and know-how to recycle more plastics at an industrial scale. Let's modernize the rules to keep plastic in the economy and out of landfills and incinerators.

Because with full-scale advanced recycling, today's waste can be tomorrow's resource.

From waste to worth: how we’re using advanced recycling to help address plastic waste

  • Progress through policy: why society needs modernized recycling rules

    How advanced recycling transforms plastics into valuable resources—and why smart policy is essential to scale these innovations.

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  • From waste to worth: how advanced recycling delivers results

    How advanced recycling diverts waste form landfills, boosts recycling rates, and drives economic growth.

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  • Myth vs. reality: what advanced recycling really does

    What advanced recycling is, how it works, and why it matters.

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    Advanced recycling: insights from American consumers

    Addressing plastic waste will require a range of solutions. Advanced recycling is one of those solutions. By transforming plastic waste back into its molecular building blocks, advanced recycling can turn more plastics into valuable raw materials for new products.

    To better understand how Americans view this technology and the policies that support it, we funded an independent consumer survey. The findings provide insight into how everyday Americans think about recycling and recycled content claims.

    The findings reveal broad support for practical solutions that can turn plastic waste into valuable new products.

    Read the full study

    Download one-pager with key takeaways

    9 out of 10

    More than 9 out of 10 Americans agree that advanced recycling is recycling.1

    8 out of 10

    Nearly 8 out of 10 Americans agree that advanced recycling is a recycling solution, even when the end product is fuel.2

    What's Possible with Advanced Recycling

    Plastics are critical for everyday life, yet today, less than 10% are recycled. Advanced recycling breaks products down at the molecular level to create new valuable raw materials. Download the infographic

    Making sense of mass balance

    In advanced recycling, mass balance ensures that the amount of recycled material produced is accurately accounted for, even if we can’t track each molecule.
    Learn more about mass balance

    Our advanced recycling operations in Baytown

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    Newsroom

      FOOTNOTES:

      1. 93 percent of the intended respondents considered it to be recycling when "Plastics are chemically broken down into smaller molecules which are used to make plastic pellets to produce new plastic products."
      2. When respondents were asked: "Plastics are chemically broken down into smaller molecules which are used to make fuels such as gasoline," 79.0 percent said the use is recycling.