‘The circular economy will increasingly develop into a critical part of the plastic value chain in India, requiring solutions across the value chain to develop a sustainable world of plastic recycling.’
LyondellBasell is to partner with Shakti Plastic Industries, India’s largest plastic scrap recycler and waste collection company, to establish a joint venture that will build and operate what is set to be the largest automated mechanical recycling plant in India. The plans were revealed during K2022, the global trade fair for plastic and rubber, running 19-26 October in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the companies will see the construction of a facility processing rigid packaging post-consumer waste and producing 50,000 tonnes of recycled polyethylene and polypropylene each year. Start-up is scheduled for the end of 2024.
LyondellBasel and Shakti Plastics Industries signed a Memorandum of Understanding during K2022.
Shakti Plastic Industries will organise the waste collection, securing the feedstock for the new facility. LyondellBasell will provide its plastics production technology and product development expertise, and will market the materials produced. The partnership hopes to meet increasing demand by converters and brand owners in India for recycled polymer materials.
Rahul V Podaar, Managing Director of Shakti Plastic Industries said; ‘The circular economy will increasingly develop into a critical part of the plastic value chain in India, requiring solutions across the value chain to develop a sustainable world of plastic recycling.’
Meanwhile, LyondellBasell, Cyclyx International and ExxonMobil have signed an agreement by which they will pursue the development of what is said to be a first-of-a-kind plastic waste sorting and processing facility. Located in Houston, Texas, US, the partners say that the facility ‘addresses a critical missing link in the plastic waste supply chain by connecting community recycling programmes to new and more advanced recycling technologies that have the potential to take a much wider variety of plastic materials’.
Cyclyx Chief Executive Officer, Joe Vaillancourt explains that the new facility will have the capability to sort and custom-blend recycled plastics: ‘With our capability to accept and process a wide range waste plastics based on their chemistry profile which we custom blend to the needs of our customers, we are creating a new set of recycling options for difficult-to-recycle waste plastics hat today are sent to landfill,’
The Cyclyx Circularity Center, scheduled for commercial start-up during 2024, will incorporate technology that can analyse plastics based on their composition and sort them according to customer specifications. The facility will supply its 150,000 tonne/year of feedstock to ExxonMobil’s and LyondellBasell’s advanced recycling projects as well as mechanical recycling markets. Total investment is put at $100 million, contingent upon a final investment decision in early 2023.
Yvonne van der Laan, Executive Vice President of Circular and Low-Carbon Solutions at LyondellBasell added: ‘This agreement is the perfect example of how collaboration across the value chain can help close the gaps to make a circular economy possible, such as access to plastic waste feedstock.’
Welcoming the announcement by the partners, the Mayor of the City of Houston, Sylvester Turner said in a statement: ‘In Houston we recognise the power that a circular recycling economy holds when it comes to resilience and sustainability. The Cyclyx Circularity Center will be the model for future plastics recycling and I am excited that these companies with global footprints have chosen to call Houston home for energy innovation.’
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