The new advanced recycling plant will have the capacity to recycle 30 thousand tons of plastic waste per year

ExxonMobil announced that it plans to build its first large-scale advanced plastic waste recycling facility. The new plant will be located in Baytown, Texas, and is expected to be ready to start operations in late 2022.

The company highlighted that its new facility will have the capacity to recycle 30,000 tons of plastic waste per year, in addition to the fact that the company has plans to build new plants around the world with the goal of treating 500,000 tons each year.

Notably, the company already has a smaller temporary facility in operation that produces commercial volumes of certified circular polymers to be marketed later this year.

ExxonMobil’s new facility is the fruit of initial testing validation of its proprietary process for converting plastic waste into raw materials. So far, the trial has successfully recycled over a thousand tons of plastic waste, the equivalent of 200 million grocery bags, and has demonstrated the ability to process 50 tons per day.

“We have tested our proprietary advanced recycling technology in Baytown, and we are expanding operations to supply certified circular polymers by the end of the year,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Chemical Company.

“The availability of advanced and reliable recycling capacity will play an important role in helping to address the problem of plastic waste in the environment. We are evaluating large-scale implementation in other parts of the world, ”she added.

Upon completion of the full-scale facility, the Baytown operation will be among the largest plastic waste recycling facilities in North America with an initial capacity to process 30,000 tons of plastic waste per year. Operational capacity could also be expanded, if effective policies and regulations are implemented, which recognize the benefits of advanced recycling in industrial and residential plastic waste sorting and collection systems.

ExxonMobil said in a media message that it is moving forward with plans to expand recycling capacity to 500,000 tons over the next five years. In Europe, the company is collaborating with Plastic Energy on a recycling plant in Notre Dame de Gravenchon, France, which is expected to process 25,000 tons of plastic waste per year, once operation begins in 2023, with the potential for expansion. to 33 thousand tons per year.