Eastman secures feedstock agreement for molecular recycling plant in France
FRANCE – American chemical company Eastman, has secured a significant amount of feedstock needed for its planned molecular recycling facility in Port Jerome sur Seine, Normandy, France.
With an investment of US$1 billion, the planned molecular recycling facility is said to become “the world’s largest” material-to-material molecular recycling plant.
Eastman is building the facility in two phases which will allow the site to recycle over 200 000 tonnes of hard-to-recycle polyester waste annually.
The new site will also process colored and opaque PET waste that is commonly landfilled or incinerated.
The company expects to complete phase 1 of the project in 2026, reaching a processing capacity of 100 000 tonnes.
Eastman initially targeted a final capacity of 160 000 tonnes. It was able to scale up plans by securing strategic waste supplies in a larger geographic area.
Brad Lich, Eastman’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer said: “We began the year with roughly half of our feedstock needs secured for phase 1 of the project, and with these important additional agreements in place we are moving closer to the more than 80% we expect to secure by year-end.
“This strong progress is a testament to the complementary nature of Eastman’s innovative molecular recycling technology to the current mechanical technologies in the market and to the growing need to enable circularity for more waste streams going back to high-quality contact-sensitive output.”
In addition to the announced plant in France, Eastman is investing in two other molecular recycling plants in the US and at another site to be announced later this year, with an expected combined global investment of approximately US$2.25 billion for all three facilities.
Securing French-sourced waste
The methanolysis facility is being realized with the support of producer responsibility organization Citeo, recycling firm Paprec as well as Interzero.
The latter is providing 25 000 tonnes of plastic scrap on top of the 20 000 metric tonnes announced last year.
Jacco de Haas, chief commercial officer of Interzero Plastics Recycling noted: “We’re pleased to grow our initial agreement with Eastman and do even more to solve the waste crisis we’re facing.
“Chemical recycling is a necessary complement to mechanical recycling to keep more raw materials in the loop.
“Interzero and Eastman are committed to creating material circularity and Eastman’s facility in France will process colored and opaque PET waste that cannot be recycled mechanically.”
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