In a recent announcement made by ExxonMobil it was revealed that the company has plans to build a large scale plastic recycling facility in Baytown, Texas. The facility is expected to start production by the end of 2022. Furthermore, the company has plans for up to 500000 tonnes capacity addition of plastic recycling by the end 2026 across multiple sites.

The new facility is based on ExxonMobil’s proprietary process for converting plastic waste into raw materials. The company has also been running active trials which have successfully reached to recycling 50 tons per day.

Upon completion, the large scale facility operational in Baytown will be among North America’s largest plastic waste recycling facilities. The facility will have an initial planned capacity of 30000 tonnes of plastic waste recycling per year.

Plastic waste recycling is one of the major components of a circular economy and the plan of ExxonMobil seems to capture the demand for recycling plastics as countries are moving towards more sustainable chemical solutions. Major plastics which are in demand for recycling include Polyethylene, Polypropylene, PET etc. The demand for plastic recycling stood at around 10 million tonnes in 2020 and is expected to grow at a healthy rate in the upcoming years.

As per ChemAnalyst, “the move by ExxonMobil to build a large scale plastic waste recycling facility is particularly aimed at capturing the demand growth of recycled plastics as the demand for recycled polymers is increasing in the United States. The proposed plant is expected to increase the supply of recycled plastic in USA.”