EPA wants to let plastic incinerators skirt Clean Air Act

The US Environmental Protection Agency has proposed to remove air emission regulations from plastic-pyrolysis plants, also known as chemical or advanced recycling facilities, that essentially burn plastic to make fuel.Pyrolysis plants are currently regulated as incinerators under the Clean Air Act. But buried in part IV of a proposal to change permitting requirements for incinerators during natural disasters, the EPA asks for public comment on the agency’s suggestion to remove the reference to “pyrolysis/combustion units" in the definition of “municipal waste combustion unit” in the emission guidelines for what the EPA calls “other solid waste incinerators.” “What EPA is now trying to do is illegal,” says Cynthia Palmer, petrochemicals senior analyst at the advocacy group Moms Clean Air Force. If the proposal goes through, it means that pyrolysis facilities would have no environmental regulations, except any state laws, she says. “There would be no pollution controls, no air monitoring, and no reporting requirements.”The way the EPA presented this potential change is shocking, says Jessica Roff, plastics and petrochemicals program manager for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), an environmental advocacy group. “This [action] is not listed in the title of the proposed rule. It's not listed in the description. It's not listed in the announcement,” she says.In the EPA’s announcement of the proposal, the agency says it is taking two actions, but the change to pyrolysis or combustion units is not one of them, Roff says. “This is a third action, so it's really a ‘maybe they won't notice it