After the breakdown of the INC-5.2 negotiations in Geneva in August 2025, informal meetings of heads of delegation were held in Nairobi, Kenya, from June 30 to July 3 this year and in Bangkok, Thailand, from September 27 to 30. The next formal negotiation, INC-5.4, has been confirmed for March 13–24, 2027. Saudi Arabia, the United States, Russia, India and other oil-producing and petrochemical countries advocate focusing on waste management and oppose restricting plastic production, while about 60 countries support establishing a global production reduction target.
Although treaty negotiations have stalled, expectations that “regulations will only become stricter” are already reshaping the industrial landscape. The EU’s PPWR was implemented in August 2026, requiring recycled content in packaging to reach 10%–35% by 2030, with targets for some categories further doubling by 2040. By 2026, 58 countries had already implemented extended producer responsibility (EPR) ahead of schedule. California’s SB 54 requires that after 2026, single-use plastic packaging contain 30% recycled content.
Amid the deadlock, chemical recycling (advanced recycling) technology has been heavily promoted by the petrochemical industry as a “solution that does not require production cuts,” becoming one of the focal points of dispute in the negotiations. Even with the treaty outcome uncertain, petrochemical and packaging companies have already positioned themselves in advance in three directions: investment in chemical recycling technology, recycled content commitments, and simplified packaging design. They believe that “regulations will only become stricter, not looser,” and several major petrochemical companies have already invested in building chemical recycling capacity.
In 2026, chemical recycling technology became the most closely watched technological trend in plastics governance, especially pyrolysis for plastics recycling, a popular technological pathway in recent years and currently the fastest-commercializing and most widely applied chemical recycling route. Global chemical recycling capacity reached 4.2 million tonnes in 2025 and is expected to increase by another 1.5 million tonnes in 2026.
Chemical recycling is positioned as a key complement to mechanical recycling. Mechanical recycling is limited by polymer degradation and mixed plastics, while chemical recycling can process harder-to-recycle waste streams through pyrolysis, depolymerization and other technologies. In 2025, the EU formally adopted the implementation details of the Mass Balance Approach, formally recognizing chemical recycling (pyrolysis) as a legitimate pathway for achieving recycled content targets.
Pyrolysis equipment manufacturer Niutech (688309) has a fairly prominent positioning advantage in the chemical recycling equipment field and is at the very front end of the industry’s investment cycle. It has long been deeply engaged in waste plastics pyrolysis technology and equipment, with projects implemented in dozens of countries including Germany, the UK, South Korea, Denmark, Brazil and Vietnam.
Pyrolysis converts mixed, contaminated and low-value waste plastics that mechanical recycling cannot handle into high-value products, preventing them from being landfilled or incinerated and polluting the environment. Through continuous pyrolysis technology and equipment, plastic waste can be converted into pyrolysis oil—the “plastic-to-oil” process—reducing oil consumption in plastic production and of great significance for energy security.
Driven by continuously worsening global plastic pollution and increasingly tightening international regulations, waste plastics pyrolysis has become a core pathway for plastic pollution governance. The green recycling solutions and industrialization practices developed by Niutech fully demonstrate that waste plastics are no longer an environmental burden but an urban resource that can be recycled and generate considerable economic returns; this is an ideal choice for turning waste into treasure and achieving sustainable development.