Chemical Recycling's Main Benefit: Closing the Loop
In last month's blog, Island Leaf Commodities explained the steps which support traditional mechanical recycling and pointed out some of its inherent flaws. We stated that while mechanical recyclers keep several thousand tons of plastic out of landfills and the environment, they only reprocess about 10% of all plastics that enter the waste stream.
Then, we introduced a reprocessing method that could potentially solve the plastic waste problem: chemical recycling. We described the general idea behind how this futuristic style of plastics reprocessing functions and how it differs from its mechanical counterpart. Ultimately, we drove home the fact that the molecular end product, which can come in a singular, short-chain, or long-chain molecular form, sets chemical recycling apart from mechanical recycling. Finally, we explained that chemical recycling produces molecular-level precipitates and five kinds of chemical recycling exist.
After introducing the five types of chemical recycling, we illustrated how each type differs from the others. Finally, we briefly mentioned each kind's current implementation progress and noted that most chemical reprocessing concepts remain in research and development territory.
However, a few companies worldwide have put industrial-level chemical recycling facilities online. Thus, March 2022's blog will explore a few chemical recycling manufacturing facilities that are already running as well as a few planned projects, after we give an overview of how chemical recycling applies to different plastic types.
How Chemical Recycling Can Support Industries Using Recycled Plastics
As mentioned last month, professionals can only describe the chemical recycling industry as nascent. Ultimately, mechanical recycling remains the dominant plastic-reprocessing method. However, several vital movements have occurred that will foment the implementation of the chemical recycling industry. Furthermore, in 2018, a leading research company predicted that by 2030, chemical recycling would account for almost the same proportion of plastics reprocessing for which mechanical recycling will account.
While the above prediction appears ambitious, mass implementation of chemical recycling could provide the planet with considerable relief from plastics pollution. We've already noted that globally, only 10% of all plastic material makes it into the closed-loop economy. This dismal proportion implies that mechanical recycling, the reclaiming method that currently and by far buttresses any attempt at making a closed-loop economy, is not nearly enough to support a completely circular economy. While the recovery rate of post-consumer materials like HDPE and PET bottles beats the recovery rate of all plastics, a chasm-like room for improvement lingers. Most of the difficulties lie within the end-products and polymer types themselves.
Post Consumer Issues
As we explained earlier, scores of different plastics have flooded the market. However, consumers use only a handful of types. High-density polyethylene (HDPE), poly-ethyl terephthalate (PET), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), Polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and Polyamide (nylon) are by far the most common types of plastics consumers use daily. These plastics comprise single-use items like bottles and containers; they also make up food packaging and film. Moreover, textile makers weave specialized threads made from some plastics into many garments worn by people today. Below, we'll explain the compatibility of significant PCR types with chemical recycling.
PET
Due to its versatile use in applications like food packaging, film, beverage bottling, cosmetic containers, garments, upholstery, and more, PET is the world's most popular plastic. Unfortunately, the single-use PET products that don't make it to mechanical recyclers' factories end up landfilled or polluting the environment. Adding salt to this wound, many complex PET-made-products like polyester can't be mechanically recycled. Fortunately, specific chemical recycling methodologies, especially depolymerization, can serve as a solid stepping stone to reprocessing all PET products, making PET a prime material to reap chemical recycling benefits.
HDPE
HDPE counts as one of the most popular types, if not the most popular type, of plastic used in food-storage applications. In addition, producers of building materials, like water pipes and wood-replacement composites, heavily rely on HDPE as a raw material. Problematically, because HDPE floats, it makes up a large percentage of plastic currently sitting in Earth's oceans, a quantity that accumulates more year over year. Even if large schemes to collect these vast swaths of HDPE prove successful, marine HDPE does not yield solid mechanical recycling results. But, recent scientific research has found that pyrolysis, one of the chemical recycling types, can produce almost virgin-quality naphtha (the petrochemical used to make virgin plastic) from recovered-marine HDPE. Therefore, other HDPE products, which haven't polluted the oceans, present stellar options for pyrolysis.
Nylon
Polyamide, aka nylon, differs very little from PET in application possibilities. Indeed, manufacturers apply Nylon to garments, upholstery, and construction materials, to name a few. Like PET, many Nylon-made products' recyclability challenges traditional mechanical recyclers. Thus, chemical recyclers notice an opportunity to create valuable, reusable commodities by chemically reprocessing old Nylon garments and rugs into virgin raw materials.
PP
Manufacturers of cosmetic bottles, food containers, and film use polypropylene similar to PET. And, in a similarity to both PET and Nylon, textile makers, especially those who make work-out and exercise clothing, use PP as a superior fiber. While PP-made clothing faces a problem similar to nylon and polyester clothing after disposal, opportunities to chemically recycle PP abound.
Film Varieties
As we mentioned earlier, film makes up a sizeable chunk of food packaging. Several types of plastics can comprise film—HDPE, LDPE, PVC, and LLDPE. Because film packaging may contain several dyes and other additives, it's challenging to sort the different types, resulting in contaminated feedstocks—i.e., a PVC film stream with high levels of HDPE film. Thus, recycling film has proven to be an arduous task. Fortunately, chemical recycling might present promising solutions.
Chemical Recycling thus presents real solutions for plastic pollution, fiber waste, and the contaminated plastic film and wrap conundrum. However, while the chemical recycling "space" has a lot of room to improve and grow, several notable chemical recycling initiatives are currently underway.
Boiling Down the Benefits of Chemical Recycling
Recall that, currently, five types of chemical recycling exist. As we described above, some methods of chemical recycling show particular promise for creating a true closed-loop economy, at least for certain types of plastic or plastic.
Chemically Recycling Polyesters and Fibers
The textiles industry, which produces products ranging from clothing to upholstery, presents severe challenges for reprocessors. Challenges arise from the products' nature, as many manufacturers add dyes and weave other types of plastics or fibers into their finished goods.
Because it's nearly impossible for mechanical recyclers to reprocess polyester, nylon, and other fibers, most of this material ends up in landfills or incinerators. However, several efforts are underway to make the reprocessing of fibers chemical— and a very effective—endeavor.
Eastman
Eastman, an American-based chemical company with over 100 years of operating experience, announced in January of this year that they will start building a chemical-recycling plant in France, slated to begin operations by 2025. The company aims to send 160,000 metric tons of polyester waste into the circular economy. Today, most discarded polyester finds itself in landfills or incineration plants.
Eastman already operates two chemical recycling plants and currently works with big-name packagers, including LVMH and Procter and Gamble, providing them with made-by-chemical-recycling packaging resin. Eastman utilizes both gasification and depolymerization to chemically reprocess difficult-to-mechanically-recycle waste.
Patagonia
Patagonia is another US-based company, and it has existed since the 1970s. An outdoor-apparel manufacturer, Patagonia acutely knows the consequences of plastic pollution on the environment. Patagonia is currently working with a Japanese chemical conglomerate called Teijin to develop a polyester-waste recycling method. Although presently in the experimental phase, Teijin and Patagonia's efforts to depolymerize polyester-fiber garments seem promising, as they have successfully separated polyester fiber from non-polyester fiber in garments.
Mattress Recycling and Chemical Giants
The multi-fibered mattresses humans rely on for brain refreshment—aka sleep—on a nightly basis present another challenge for recyclers. Yet, two major chemical companies, US-based Dow and Germany-based BASF, are currently exploring chemical recycling methods to produce virgin material from old mattresses. After these chemical industry titans scale their operations, each will chemically recycle over 100,000 beds per year.
Film and Packaging Material
Films, like fibers, constitute a significant swath of plastic that goes into landfill, incinerators or worse—the environment. And, films are similar to fibers because several types of polymers can comprise them, which presents substantial impediments to mechanical recycling. Thus, chemical recycling remains the most viable option for the sustainable reprocessing of film material.
Petro and Packaging Giants
A few months ago, we published a blog exploring how Nestle and Unilever plan to phase out virgin plastics from their feedstocks. Currently, the companies purchase a growing amount of polymers for their packing made from mechanical recyclers, but change is upon the horizon. Recently, Nestle entered into a partnership with Plastic Energy, a European-based chemical recycler that operates two chemical recycling plants in Spain.
While both the chemical-recycling type and the beginning-of-operations date haven't been divulged to the public, the scope of the partnership will ultimately help Nestle achieve its goal of completely phasing out virgin-plastic feedstock over the next decade.
Like Nestle, Unilever produces several thousand metric tons of plastic packaging every year. And Unilever is moving in the same sustainable direction as Nestle by partnering with Recycling Technology, a UK-government backed chemical-recycling equipment manufacturer, and Neste, a chemical recycler. Once the venture scales up, Recycling Technology will provide Neste with the equipment to gasify and reprocess packing waste, subsequently providing Unilever with chemically-recycled plastic resins.
Not putting all its sustainable-plastic eggs in one basket, Unilever plans to source chemically-recycled plastics from other producers. One of these producers has operated in the petrochemical space for over a century: British Petroleum (BP). In more recent times, BP has pivoted toward sustainable energy and materials. As a result, BP plans to produce some of the sustainable materials that are chemically-recycled plastics—BP even has a name for this program—BP Infinia.
The BP Infinia program aims to use depolymerization to chemically recycle post-consumer PET products. Currently, BP is working on breaking ground on a Naperville, Illinois plant, which will use depolymerization to recycle a variety of PCR PET. In addition, BP hopes to supply several significant packagers with plastic resin made ala chemical recycling by the end of the 2020s.
Will Chemical Recycling Close the Loop and Benefit Humanity?
We've seen that chemical recycling can benefit consumers, manufacturers, resin producers, and the planet. With the above projects breaking ground and technology in chemical recycling advancing rapidly, that ambitious 25% of all recycled materials originating from chemical recycling by 2030 target, set by the McKinsey report (link to paragraph 4), might come to fruition. And from 2030 on, it would not be far-fetched to hypothesize that chemical recycling will become more advanced and account for even more resin production—possibly presenting a solution to clean up ocean plastics. Ultimately, humanity will soon reap chemical recycling's benefits.
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