Plastic Energy and TotalEnergies reveal plans for second advanced recycling plant in Spain

11 Jan 2022 --- Plastic Energy is announcing plans to build a second advanced recycling plant for end-of-life plastics in Sevilla, Spain, after securing a new agreement with TotalEnergies. The plant is expected to become operational in early 2025.

Like its existing operational plant, the new facility will convert end-of-life plastic waste into a recycled feedstock called Tacoil using Plastic Energy’s patented recycling technology.

TotalEnergies will then convert this raw material into virgin-quality polymers, which can be used for food-grade packaging.

The new plant will process and convert 33,000 tons of post-consumer end-of-life plastic waste yearly that would otherwise be destined for landfill or incineration.

Carlos Monreal, founder and CEO of Plastic Energy, stated: “This new large-scale recycling plant will be an impactful addition to our existing portfolio of operational plants in Spain and will allow for an increase in the amount of end-of-life plastics that we can recycle in Europe.”

Recycled polymers
The Tacoil will be used to manufacture high-quality polymers in TotalEnergies’ European-based production units, following a successful processing experimentation in TotalEnergies’ petrochemical platform in Antwerp, Belgium.

The Tacoil will be used by TotalEnergies to manufacture food-grade polymers.With identical properties to virgin ones, the recycled polymers will be suitable for use in food-grade applications, such as flexible and rigid food packaging containers.

“This new project with Plastic Energy in Spain follows two collaboration projects already announced in France and the US,” comments Valérie Goff, SVP for Polymers at TotalEnergies.

“Those projects contribute to addressing the challenge of the circular economy and to our ambition of producing 30% recycled and renewable polymers by 2030.”

Demand for food-grade recycled plastic is on the rise, spurred by increasingly stringent legislation, like the UK’s Plastic Packaging Tax, effective from April 2022. Plastic Energy partnered with Ineos on a major chemical recycling plant in the UK last year.

Plastics circular economy
Plastic Energy and TotalEnergies say they are both firmly committed to developing plastics recycling to address the issue of plastic waste and help build a circular economy in Europe and globally.

In line with this commitment, TotalEnergies and Plastic Energy announced in September 2020 a joint venture to build a plastic waste conversion facility with a capacity of 15,000 tons per year at the TotalEnergies Grandpuits zero-crude platform in France. The project is expected to be operational in 2023.

Plastic Energy, Freepoint Eco-Systems and TotalEnergies announced a strategic partnership in October 2021 for a similar recycling plant in Texas, US. This plant, a joint venture between Plastic Energy and Freepoint Eco-systems, will have the capacity to recycle 33,000 tons of plastic waste per year and is expected to be operational by mid-2024. Under the agreement, Tacoil will be converted by TotalEnergies in its Texas-based production units.

Advanced recycling continues to flourish in 2021, despite criticism from NGOs and media reports challenging the cost-effectiveness and environmental performance of these technologies. Rabobank’s latest report on advanced recycling has documented the increasing market activity.

More than a waste management solution, recycled plastics are increasingly seen as a boost to climate change efforts, as explained by recycling expert Edward Kosior, founder of Nextek and Nextloopp.

By Joshua Poole