What is Advanced Recycling and Mass Balance Accounting?

Mass balance is an environmentally safe, trusted, science-based tracking and accounting system used as part of advanced recycling processes for hard-to-recycle products, like film or plastic wrap. By utilizing a detailed accounting system, mass balance tracks how much recyclable materials are put into complex manufacturing and supply chains and how much are reused and recycled out. It provides traceability even when materials are mixed — ensuring every recycled input is transparently accounted for. This system is recognized worldwide and ensures full traceability and verification of recycled content in manufacturing.

For example, in chemical recycling processes, plastic waste may be broken down to the molecular level and then mixed and reused with different materials to make something new. The mass balance approach tracks the amount of recycled materials that were fed into the process, and then accounts for the amount of recycled materials that were used to create the final, new product.