Trinseo and GMP partner on advanced recycling facility for polystyrene in the Netherlands

04 Jul 2022 --- Trinseo is partnering with Dutch circular business innovations company GMP Group to develop an advanced recycling facility for polystyrene (PS). 

The duo says that by using advanced methods, it can keep PS – a common material used in numerous applications, including packaging and consumer goods – in a circular economy without the need for alternative materials. 

Trinseo and GMP’s collaboration aims to provide a framework for cooperation, on an exclusive basis, in the construction and operation by GMP of an advanced pretreatment or regeneration plant with a minimum 25 kiloton capacity annually in the Netherlands. 

The plant will purify PS waste and deliver high-quality recycled PS pellets via the “Super Clean” recycling process. The anticipated startup date of the plant in the Netherlands is 2024. There is also an intended execution of a long-term tolling and off-taking agreement.

The new GMP facility will be in the Netherlands.“The Trinseo-GMP collaboration is yet another important move toward helping our customers reach their sustainability goals and closing the loop for a circular economy, and both companies realize that the most successful way to do this is through synergy along the value chain,” says Nicolas Joly, Trinseo’s senior vice president for plastics and feedstocks. 

“This collaboration shows our continuous efforts in sustainability marching toward our 2030 sustainability goals.”

Essential steps 
Joly also says the partnership is “an essential step forward in our strategies contributing to a healthier world and increased sustainability. Every day, we look for circular business innovations like valuing plastic waste by recycling it into new resources.”

The intended collaboration will see the two companies conduct R&D into other supply and processing opportunities, utilizing their combined technical expertise to help develop more sustainable solutions.

“Together with Trinseo, we can now develop, build, and operate a state-of-the-art recycling plant in Europe. This will increase the reuse of a substantial volume of PS in consumer food packaging.” 

“Furthermore, we can provide other sustainability solutions and improve circularity in various value chains,” says Gerard Putman, general director of GMP Group.

Advanced recycling 
Chemical or advanced recycling technologies are on the rise as companies search for ways to keep hard-to-recycle plastics in a circular economy. Last year, Rabobank predicted advanced recycling plants to double to at least 220 plants globally by 2025 as regulatory and public demand for recycled plastics packaging drives “huge” investment. 

PackagingInsights spoke with the bank’s global strategist for F&A supply chains, who explained that the majority of projects are occurring in Europe, but the single nation with the highest number of projects is the US. 

Last year, Trinseo and Ineos Styrolution also announced that Recycling Technologies would be their technology partner for developing commercial PS recycling plants in Europe. 

Edited

By Louis Gore-Langton

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