INEOS Syrolution and Trinseo have announced the next stage of plans to build a polystyrene recycling facility in Wingles in northern France.
It will be the first-of-its-kind depolymerisation plant and will be a commercial-scale facility capable of recycling 50 tonnes per day of post-consumer polystyrene. It is expected to be operational by mid-2023.
The depolymerisation technology will convert polystyrene food packaging directly back into its monomer, which can then we repolymerised into recycled polystyrene for the same high-quality end applications, including food contact applications such as virgin polystyrene.
During the conceptual design phase, two technology concepts from Agilyx and Recycling Technologies will be evaluated with regards to quality, efficiency and adaptation to different waste streams.
Trinseo vice president plastics and feedstocks Nicolas Joly said: “We are excited to move to the next phase of engineering of this plant, as we are well on track to deploy the game changing depolymerisation technology with the recycling plant in France.
“This plant will be part of establishing a novel recycling infrastructure for styrenics in Europe together with key players from across the entire value chain, which will mark a step change in polystyrene recycling.”
INEOS Styrolution vice president, business management, standard products EMEA Sven Riechers added: “Our collaboration between Trinseo and INEOS Styrolution is a significant commitment of capital and resources and a major milestone in truly closing the loop with food grade recycled content.
“It forms part of INEOS Styrolution’s and Trinseo’s commitments to use, on average, 30% recycled content in products designed for polystyrene packaging in Europe by 2025.”
Trinseo is a global materials solutions provider and manufacturer of plastics, latex binders and synthetic rubber. INEOS Styrolution is a global styrenics supplier with a focus on styrene monomer, polystyrene, ABS standard and styrenic specialities.
