Chemical Recycling Facility Visited by NY Legislators Appears Shut Down After Environmental Violations

ALBANY, NY (07/01/2026) (readMedia)-- Beyond Plastics has learned that Braven Environmental's plastics pyrolysis - aka "chemical recycling" - facility in Zebulon, North Carolina, has been shut down by environmental regulators. In 2023, the American Chemistry Council brought New York state Assemblymembers Alicia Hyndman, Chantel Jackson, Stefani Zinerman, and others to the facility to show the "success" of so-called "chemical recycling," which the petrochemical industry holds up as a solution to the plastic pollution crisis.

Last year, New York Focus covered the American Chemistry Council's lobbying campaign, its field trips for legislators to the Braven facility, and its push to kill the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S1464A Harckham/A1749A Glick), which would disallow chemical recycling from counting as a form of recycling in New York. According to NY Focus:

"The chemical industry's efforts to sell Albany lawmakers on their answers to plastic pollution have taken lawmakers hundreds of miles from the state capitol, to North Carolina, where one chemical recycling company operates its first and so far only plant.

Braven Environmental, whose corporate office is in Westchester, converts waste plastics into a mix of fuel and feedstocks for new materials using a high-heat process called 'pyrolysis.' New York lawmakers have toured the plant on at least two occasions since 2023."

Also in the NY Focus story:

"Hyndman said that, when she visited, she was impressed by what the company was able to achieve in a modest facility.

'I was expecting a huge place with smokestacks and no one around for miles, but this facility was right next to a college and an elementary school, and I would never have thought it was an advanced recycling facility,' she said."

"While industry lobbyists are bringing New York legislators to North Carolina to try and show that so-called 'chemical recycling' will fix plastic waste, that facility, and others like it across the country, are shutting down." said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and former EPA regional administrator. "We don't need policies that promote this failed false solution that is nothing more than a chemical industry talking point. We need policies that actually reduce plastic, like the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act."

A Beyond Plastics staff member traveled to the Braven facility on June 25, 2026, and observed that the site was not operational and that equipment and materials were being removed from the building. During that visit, an individual on-site stated that he had been hired to empty the building and that the facility had been ordered to close by environmental regulators. The site appeared largely vacant and was not being maintained as an active industrial operation. The parking lot was mostly empty.

Staff at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ) confirmed to Beyond Plastics on June 26, 2026, that the Braven facility is not currently operating and referred to public records showing that Braven Environmental retains multiple unresolved violations with the agency. Staff at the Town of Zebulon stated they did not know anything about the closure.

According to U.S. EPA records, from 2021 to 2025, Braven generated over 400 tons of hazardous waste that it shipped to at least four different states for disposal. Extensive reporting by Carolina Public Press and the Intercept in 2023 documented serious operational problems and hazardous waste management issues at the Zebulon facility, including the accumulation of hundreds of containers of hazardous waste, violations of hazardous waste storage rules, and questions about Braven's ability to safely manage its toxic byproducts. That record of violations and contamination challenges directly undercuts industry claims that Braven and similar "chemical recycling" projects offer a safe, scalable solution to plastic waste.

Braven Environmental's Zebulon plant has been one of only a handful of so-called "chemical recycling" facilities operating commercially in the United States. Its apparent shutdown, following Braven's recent cancellation of a planned $145 million pyrolysis plant in Texarkana, Texas, earlier this year, is further evidence that pyrolysis is a dangerous and unreliable distraction, not a viable solution for dealing with plastic waste. The Texarkana project - Braven's second recent failed expansion attempt, after a Virginia project was also cancelled - collapsed despite tax abatements and public promotion by state officials.

A new NRDC issue brief - published yesterday and based on public records requests - examines the hazardous chemicals used and stored at "chemical recycling" facilities nationwide, including specific details related to the Braven facility, and underscores the risks these operations pose to workers and surrounding communities.

Read more about the Braven facility and why chemical recycling isn't a solution here.

About Beyond Plastics

Launched in 2019, Beyond Plastics pairs the wisdom and experience of environmental policy experts with the energy and creativity of grassroots advocates to build a vibrant and effective movement to end plastic pollution. Using deep policy and advocacy expertise, Beyond Plastics is building a well-informed, effective movement seeking to achieve the institutional, economic, and societal changes needed to save our planet and ourselves, from the negative health, climate, and environmental impacts for the production, usage, and disposal of plastics.

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