Victory: Construction of nation’s largest plastic-to-fuel facility canceled in Georgia

Citizens and elected officials alike are starting to see through a cleverly constructed ruse for the plastics industry to — you guessed it — sell more plastic.

In early April, Georgia’s Macon-Bibb County canceled the construction of a facility for a deceptively named process called “chemical recycling,” which involves melting plastic waste and turning it back into fossil fuels. Plastic-to-fuel facilities expend huge amounts of energy and release toxic pollutants into the air — all while providing cover for the plastics industry to continue producing single-use items we don’t need under the guise that they can be “recycled” in this way.

“There are so many reasons this facility was a bad idea. Burning plastic trashes our environment and our health, and it doesn’t make financial sense, either,” said PIRG Environment Campaigns Director Matt Casale. 

“We’re relieved that Macon-Bibb has said ‘no’ to the plastic-to-fuel shell game once and for all, and we’ll continue working to promote other, more effective plastic waste solutions — namely banning the single-use items we can all live without.

Read more from our network partners at Environment Georgia.