Chemical giant LyondellBasell has signed a joint venture agreement with 23 Oaks Investment that should eventually lead to the construction of a plastic chemical recycling facility in Germany.
Source One Plastics has been created as a result of the joint venture that will build an energy efficient, advanced plastic waste sorting and recycling facility in Germany.
Using renewable energy from wind and biomass, the new unit is designed to process the amount of plastic packaging waste generated by approximately 1.3 million German people per year. This is material that is currently not recycled but incinerated instead.
This facility will provide feedstock for an advanced chemical recycling plant that LyondellBasell plans to build at its Wesseling site in Germany.
Using its proprietary MoReTec technology, it will be the first commercial scale, single-train advanced recycling plant, designed to demonstrate its capability for further scalability. LyondellBasell already operates a semi-industrial scale MoReTec plant at its Ferrara, Italy site.
The final investment decision on the Germany facility will be made in the coming months.
LyondellBasell executive vice president, circular and low carbon solutions Yvonne van der Laan said: “We are committed to supporting our customers to meet their demand for renewable and circular solutions.
“To truly achieve a circular economy, we have to find creative solutions to meet society’s needs. We are taking an important step into the upstream side of the business to secure access to plastic waste that we will convert into new plastic materials at our advanced recycling plants.
“This will enable us to meet our circular ambition and produce two million tonnes of polymers from recycled or renewable resources annually by 2030.”
LyondellBasell has also signed a joint venture with Genox Recycling to build a mechanical plastic recycling plant in Zhaoqing, China.
