As crucial environmental developments like this go unnoticed, the media continues to fixate on Just Stop Oil, prioritising sensationalist headlines over stories with genuine environmental impact.

While the headlines been preoccupied with the record jail terms for Just Stop Oil protesters – a move criticised as a “low point for British justice” but lauded as a decision by a “judge who spoke for all of us,” as the Daily Mail’s front page read – an important environment story has slipped under the radar. Shell has quietly backed away from its promise to increase the ‘advanced recycling’ of plastics, a decision that could have a significant environmental impact.

The energy giant had pledged to ramp up its use of “advanced recycling,” touted by oil and petrol producers as a solution to plastic pollution. The process involves breaking down plastic polymers into molecules that can be turned into new plastics or synthetic fuels. Since 2019, Shell has invested in pyrolysis, the most common method of advanced recycling, even producing oil via pyrolysis in one of its chemical plants in the US. “Our ambition is to use 1m tonnes of plastic waste a year in our global chemicals plants by 2025,” Shell announced at the time.

But by 2023, Shell quietly established that the goal was “unfeasible.” Davis Allen, an investigative researcher at the Center for Climate Integrity, unveiled the finding to the Guardian. “It’s an acknowledgment that advanced recycling is not developing in the way that companies have promised it will, and are counting on it to. That’s pretty meaningful,” said Allen.

Environmentalists have long raised concerns about the pollution that advanced recycling creates, warning it is more toxic and energy-intensive than traditional plastic recycling. Yet, as the Guardian reports, Shell’s retraction is not due to these environmental concerns. A company report cites market changes, including a lack of available feedstock, slow technology development, and regulatory uncertainty, as reasons for the U-turn.

Despite reversing its advanced recycling plans, Shell is not stepping back from plastic production. Operations began in November 2022 at Shell’s new Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex, an “ethylene cracker plant” capable of producing 1.6m tonnes of plastic annually. Since opening, the plant has violated clean air laws 19 times and incurred over $10m in fines.

Shell remains a member of the American Chemistry Council and its subgroup America’s Plastic Makers, which recently promoted advanced recycling in an ad urging audiences to “imagine a future where plastic is not wasted, but instead remade over and over.” However, the company’s retraction is seen by some as a tacit acknowledgment of the technology’s longstanding issues. Judith Enck, president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, told the Guardian: “I have never said this before, but Shell has made a wise decision here. Chemical recycling is a polluting and unreliable way to address the growing problem of plastics.”

As crucial environmental developments like this go unnoticed, the media continues to fixate on Just Stop Oil, prioritising sensationalist headlines over stories with genuine environmental impact.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

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