FRANCE – TotalEnergies, a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company has inked a long-term commercial agreement with plastic recycling firm Paprec to create a French value chain for the advanced recycling of plastic film wastes.
Being built by TotalEnergies (60%) and Plastic Energy (40%), the recycling facility will be able to process 15,000 tonnes of waste annually and is expected to be operational in 2024.
The deal aims to secure the feedstock supply for the plant from TotalEnergies’ future advanced plastic recycling plant in Grandpuits.
Under the terms of the agreement, French household packaging compliance firm Citeo will supply a stream of flexible plastic waste sorted from post-consumer packaging.
The stream will be transferred to the Paprec Plastiques 80 plant in Amiens (France), where a sorting and preparation line will be constructed.
This waste from France will be used by TotalEnergies in its advanced recycling facility at the Grandpuits zero-crude platform to make virgin food-grade quality recycled plastics.
TotalEnergies Renewable Fuels & Chemicals senior vice president Valérie Goff said: “This long-term agreement is a major milestone for our advanced recycling plant at Grandpuits, as it guarantees a supply of waste of French-origin.
“It is a tangible example of TotalEnergies’ commitment to developing a circular economy for plastics and fully contributes to our ambition of producing 30% circular polymers by 2030.”
In September 2020, the petroleum company unveiled its plans to invest more than €500m to convert its Grandpuits refinery into a zero-crude platform.
Since then, TotalEnergies has signed many partnerships to see the construction of facilities for (aviation) biofuels and bioplastics production, as well as plastic waste recycling.
COLINES partnership
Meanwhile, TotalEnergies and extrusion lines maker COLINES have developed a successful proof of concept of an Unlaminated Recyclable Stand-Up Pouch.
The Stand-Up Pouch is said to be a fully recyclable polyethylene (PE) solution intended for food-contact applications.
The full PE recyclable mono-material pouch, expected to be a recyclable alternative to multi-material films, is said to decrease packaging thickness using its asymmetrical structure.
According to TotalEnergies, the structure has a low-density sealing layer on one side and a high-density stiff layer on another side.
The Machine Direction Orientation (MDO) film has been produced on the COLINES cast line Polycast as well as the MDO line.
The MDO-PE film formulation consists of the petroleum firm’s Supertough and Lumicene high-density PE to provide a range of thicknesses for different customer needs.
TotalEnergies Polymers Europe & Orient vice president Olivier Greiner said: “This collaboration is in line with the recent developments to provide packaging solutions that are fully mechanically recyclable, with the end goal to bring more qualitative feedstock on the market.
“This latter could be used as feedstock for the recycling industry and eventually end up as RE:use polymers, part of the RE:clic range supporting our ambition of producing 30% circular polymers by 2030.
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