A chemical recycling plant in Tyler, Texas, shut down this summer after formerly announcing plans for a major expansion next year to make it the largest pyrolysis operation in the world.

Pyrolysis is a process where plastics are melted, vaporized, and turned into liquid known as pyrolysis oil. Pyrolysis is the most common form of a controversial yet growing industry based around chemical recycling, or advanced recycling, that was deemed mainly a public relations campaign to prolong the life of fossil fuel-based plastics in a 2023 report by the environmental group Beyond Plastics.  

The Tyler expansion would have allowed the New Hope Energy Plastics Recycling Plant, also known as the Trinity Oaks Tyler Facility, to go from processing 50 tons of plastic per day to 500 tons per day. New Hope Energy had commitment from TotalEnergies to purchase 100,000 tons per year of the recycled product to manufacture food-grade polymers.

Rusty Combs, the CEO of New Hope Energy, confirmed that the Tyler facility was “mothballed.” He said that the company intends to build a larger commercial facility at the same location or somewhere along the Gulf Coast but did not provide additional details. The plant has been plagued by allegations of worker safety violations and hazardous spills into a stream running into nearby Blackfork Creek.

The plastics industry has been adamant in its messaging that pyrolysis chemical recycling is not incineration, despite clear evidence that the underlying technologies and processes are virtually the same. A February 2022 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council that examined eight chemical recycling plants operating across the U.S. found that the majority of facilities are actually burning, not recycling plastics. These chemical recycling plants could release 96 different types of hazardous and toxic air pollutants during normal operations, according to an Oil and Gas Watch review of state permit documents.