US firm Eastman has revealed that it has secured a significant amount of feedstock for its planned molecular recycling facility in Normandy, France.
With an investment of $1 billion (£802 million), it will be the world’s largest material-to-material molecular recycling plant.
So far, deals have been signed with French Producer Responsibility Organisation Citeo in partnership with waste management company Paprec to source French household feedstock, as well as with European waste management company Interzero. The deal with Interzero will see a further 25,000 tonnes provided on the previous 20,000 tonnes agreed.
A further 30,000 tonnes was signed for last year with an unnamed waste management company.
Eventually, Eastman hopes to process 200,000 tonnes of hard-to-recycle polyester annually. It expects the first phase of 100,000 tonnes per year to be operational by 2026.
The company will use its own Polyester Renewal Technology that breaks down the material to their polymer building blocks and then are reassembled into new material.
Eastman executive vice president and chief commercial officer Brad Lich said: “We began the year with roughly half of our feedstock needs secured for phase 1 of the project, and with these important additional agreements in place we are moving closer to the more than 80 percent we expect to secure by year-end.
“This strong progress is a testament to the complementary nature of Eastman’s innovative molecular recycling technology to the current mechanical technologies in the market and to the growing need to enable circularity for more waste streams going back to high-quality contact-sensitive output.”
