Avoiding landfill: Eastman’s advanced circular recycling technology can spur high-quality polyesters
11 Mar 2019 --- Specialty materials company Eastman is pioneering an innovative circular recycling technology that processes polyester waste which cannot be recycled by current mechanical methods, and as a result, often ends up in landfills and waterways. The company sees its technology as one that could complement typical mechanical recycling and offer a valuable end-of-life solution to polyester waste.
Using the process of methanolysis – the treatment of PET with methanol – Eastman’s technology breaks down polyester-based products into their polymer building blocks. These building blocks can then be reintroduced to the production of new polyester-based polymers, delivering a true circular solution. The circular recycling technology has the potential to be an especially impactful solution, as low-quality polyester waste that would typically be diverted to landfills can instead be recycled into high-quality polyesters suitable for use in a variety of end markets, including food contact applications.
“We see advanced circular recycling as complementary to mechanical recycling. For mixed and difficult-to-recycle materials, however, we believe that advanced circular recycling is a positive end-of-life solution for those polyester-based materials that might otherwise be discarded in landfills. Those polyester-based plastics suitable for our advanced recycling solution include dyed fabrics and carpets and colored PET bottles,” a company spokesperson tells PackagingInsights.
Eastman was one of the pioneers in developing methanolysis technology at a commercial scale and has more than three decades of expertise in this recycling process, the company explains.
“We recognize that plastic waste is a complex problem that needs advanced solutions. As we have engaged potential partners, it is clear there is high interest across the entire value chain,” says Mark Costa, Eastman’s Board Chair and CEO. “Our long history of technical expertise in chemical processes, including methanolysis, and our leading position in copolyester chemistry enables us to provide this innovative solution to address the growing challenges of plastic waste in our environment.”
Eastman is currently executing an engineering feasibility study on the design and construction of a commercial scale methanolysis facility to meet the demands of customers and has engaged in initial discussions with potential partners across the value chain on the development of such a facility. The goal is to be operating a full-scale, advanced circular recycling facility within 24 to 36 months.
“We believe we must enhance the quality of life in a material way,” says David Golden, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal & Sustainability Officer and Corporate Secretary. “As the desire grows for products that have a sustainable life cycle, Eastman continues to build on its heritage of world-class technology platforms and product innovation to offer solutions at the molecular level. Today, more than ever, the world needs innovation.”
How a sorting line could look using the Digimarc watermark. Credit: Gian De Belder, P&G.The push for a circular economy approach to waste has spurred a number of innovations. A technology coined PolyMet, for example, seeks to be the first commercially accessible process for removing the pigment in colored, rigid plastics without destroying the polymers. PolyMet has the potential to create a new market for currently low-value, unrecycled colored plastics through the production of a reusable plastic feedstock, according to the company.
P&G has put forward watermarking technology as a technique to increase the recycling levels of plastic, by streamlining the sorting and recycling process. Through its project coined “HolyGrail,” P&G is leading a full value chain investigating how current sorting lines can be improved through modules that can simply be “added onto” existing lines. One example is using watermarks which have been developed by partner companies Digimarc and FiliGrade. Watermarks can replace both QR codes and barcodes and be scanned by cash registers, consumer smartphones and, in this case, automated sorting machines to improve the sorting and recycling process.
By Laxmi Haigh
