Communicator

Europe’s war against plastic waste was supposed to be won by recycling. Governments poured billions into subsidizing recycling plants, imposed plastic taxes on virgin materials, and wrote regulations mandating ever-higher recycling rates and minimum recycled content. For a time, heroic promises flourished: a circular economy, hundreds of thousands of “green jobs,” and global leadership in sustainability. But now, across the continent, what’s unfolding is a stunning retreat—one that exposes a sobering truth about the policy-driven recycling revolution: market reality bites back.

The Collapse: Project Cancellations, Bankruptcies, Shuttered Plants

Far from steady progress, the past three years have delivered a torrent of closures, bankruptcies, and shelved investments. Major recycling operations—both mechanical and chemical—are pulling the plug, often after only a few years, and sometimes even before producing their first tonne of recycled product.

A Continent-Wide Wave

• Aug 2025 -- Dow terminated its 120,000-tonne Böhlen chemical recycling project with Mura Technology in Germany, just before breaking ground, part of a wider retreat that includes shutting other assets in Europe.

• Aug 2025 -- Veolia closed its last German recycling sites, Bernburg’s Multipet and Multiport, ending 70,000 tonnes of annual output.

• Aug 2025 -- Biffa Limited shuttered its Sunderland, UK PET recycling plant (nearly 50,000 tonnes annual capacity) just two years after opening, citing unsustainable economics and regulatory pressure.

• Aug 2025 -- Saperatec entered insolvency after less than a year’s operation of its composite flexible packaging delamination process plant (18,000 tonnes input capacity).

• July 2025 -- Borealis cancelled its Schwechat mechanical recycling project in Austria, shelving a planned 60,000 tonnes per year project.

• Jun 2025 -- Eastman polyester molecular recycling project based on Eastman PRT in the Port-Jérôme industrial zone in Normandy, France (110,000 tonnes, expandable to over 200,000 tonnes), is currently on hold as the company monitors evolving EU plastic waste regulations and faces a critical challenge due to the absence of a plan to supply electrical power to the plant before 2028, putting its timely realization in serious jeopardy.

• Jul 2025 -- Fuenix Ecogy, supported by Sulzer and heralded as a breakthrough in chemical recycling, declared bankruptcy in the Netherlands.

• Jul 2025 -- Neste & Ravago aborted a flagship chemical recycling plant (55,000 tonnes) in Vlissingen.

• Feb 2025 -- Re-Match Netherlands, whose primary activity was sorting materials for recycling, went bankrupt (Tiel), despite a €4.5 million government subsidy. The Dutch factory was intended to serve as a template for 23 additional factories across Europe and North America.

• Feb 2025 -- Carbios, a French biotech company, has announced a dramatic restructuring plan, cutting approximately 40% of its workforce amid mounting operational losses that reached €33.1 million in 2024, compared to €27.2 million the previous year. The company struggled with delays in securing financing for its flagship enzymatic-catalyzed PET depolymerization plant in Longlaville (50,000 tonnes of prepared PET waste input).

• Jan 2025 -- Blue Cycle, Netherlands’ pioneering plastic-to-oil recycler established in late 2022, filed for bankruptcy, never reaching commercial scale (20,000 tonnes of plastic waste input).

• 2024 -- Stiphout Plastics, Vinylrecycling.com, Umincorp—all Dutch firms—all declared bankruptcy, adding to the tally of seven Netherlands plant closures in 2024.

• Nov 2024 -- Suez, Loop Industries and SK Geo Centric were forced to abandon a large scale PET chemical recycling project in Saint-Avold, France, that was announced in February 2023.

• Nov 2024 -- Viridor announced mechanical recycling plant closures both at Avonmouth and Rochester (total capacity 155,000 tonnes, £317 million invested).

• Oct 2024 -- Ioniqa filed for bankruptcy protection as production costs overwhelmed revenues. The company had developed an ionic liquid–catalyzed PET glycolysis process (10,000 tonnes demo plant capacity). The company announced a restart in December 2024 after shedding half of its employees, closing the Geleen facility and focusing solely on selling licenses.

• Oct 2024 -- PVC Recycling Lelystad (processing capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 tonnes of PVC waste) and others have ceased operations, with auctions of machinery showing a sector in distress.

• Mar 2024 -- Borealis announced to put on hold the Stenungsung pyrolysis project (50,000 tonnes of pyrolysis oil), backed by a grant from the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA) and that was expected to begin operations in 2024.

• Jan 2024 -- Umincorp Polymers BV, a Dutch recycling company, was declared insolvent. The company had previously declared that its recycled materials produced at the Rotterdam facility (36,000 tonnes of PET bottles recycling capacity) were no longer competitive - in terms of price - with the virgin materials on the market.

• Dec 2023 -- Veolia shut down its PET recycling operations in Rostock (32,000 tonnes of food-grade recycled PET) at the end of 2023 after more than 20 years of operation owing to economic pressures.

• Sep 2022 -- Recycling Technologies, former partner of Plastics Europe for plastics pyrolysis, entered administration following an unsuccessful process to seek additional investment after receiving £2 million from Zero Waste Scotland, strucking deals worth
  £65 million for the forward sale of py-oil and the backing by Swindon borough council with upwards of £10 million in grants and investment rounds.

• Feb 2022 -- The Advanced Plastic Purification International (Appi) will not build a chemical recycling plant in the port of Ostende, Belgium. The project, which was planned to process 500,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually on a 15-hectare site in the "Plassendale" area of the port, has been abandoned.

This wave isn’t isolated. EUWID Recycling reports dozens of closures and receiverships across Germany, the Netherlands, France, and the UK—signals of a deep-rooted crisis.

The Scope: Billions Invested—Hundreds of Thousands of Tonnes Gone

Industry analysis suggests at least 600,000 tonnes/year of recycling capacity have vanished since 2023—a figure likely understated, considering bankrupt auctions, idle plants, and stillborn projects not itemized in public records.

• Dutch bankruptcy auctions in recycling rose 150% in 2024 versus the previous year.

• Total investment lost across Europe exceeds €5 billion—a mixture of private capital and public subsidies.

Why the Recycling Renaissance Failed

Why did all this money, all these policies, and such grand ambition crash so dramatically? The answer is found in the economics of plastics, energy, and global markets.

Virgin Plastic: The Irresistible Competitor

From 2023 onward, virgin plastic prices plummeted as mega-plants in China, the Middle East, and the US began pumping out vast quantities. Europe’s recycled plastics faced a relentless flood of cheap, imported virgin material. By February 2025, recycled PET averaged $750-800 per tonne more than virgin PET, shutting recycled product out of mass markets.

Imports Add Insult to Injury

Europe, meant to be the greenest market, found itself increasingly buying cheap, sometimes dubiously labeled “recycled” plastics from abroad—often without effective verification. Domestic recyclers couldn’t compete with imports made under looser standards, lower labor costs, and less expensive energy.

The Energy Crunch

Recycling, especially chemical, is energy-intensive. Europe’s natural gas price surge post-2022 made recycling electricity 3–4x costlier than in the US. Energy went from 15% to over 50% of operating costs; some German operators report 70% of costs are now electricity. Italy and Germany both saw recyclers shut simply because the utility bill made month-to-month survival impossible.

Subsidies and Taxes: Not Enough, Sometimes Hurting More

Public subsidies temporarily shielded recyclers from stark costs but couldn’t build businesses that last. The UK Packaging Tax, the Spanish tax on virgin plastics, the EU’s plastic tax (€0.80/kg on non-recycled waste) and other national fees on packaging raised costs for converters, reducing volumes. Grants like Re-Match’s in the Netherlands kept operations afloat for a season before insolvency struck.

The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which imposes new targets and strict reporting, arrived just as the industrial base capable of meeting those targets collapsed. Uncertainty around regulation, rapidly shifting standards, and policy delays chilled new investment.

Chemical Recycling: Too Early for Profits

Once marketed as a technological fix for “unrecyclable” plastics, chemical recycling remains dogged by technical obstacles and astronomical costs. Reports show most commercial chemical recycling plants have failed to break even (Ioniqa, Blue Cycle, Fuenix Ecogy, Mura, Suez-Saint Avold, Neste/Ravago—all shuttered or cancelled).

A Downward Spiral: When Virgin Closes, Recycling Follows

Economics don’t favor recycling when even virgin resin production itself is being curtailed. Dow, Sabic, LyondellBasell, and others are closing or mothballing crackers and polymer lines in the EU as profits evaporate. For recyclers, those same factors—depressed demand, high costs—make new investment suicidal.

The Human & Environmental Cost

These closures mean lost jobs—sometimes entire regions losing “green economy” hopes as plants shutter mere months after opening. In the UK, each Viridor and Biffa closure meant over 100 direct jobs lost, plus suppliers and logistics implications. Across Germany, the Dutch industrial belt, and France, engineers and operators have been left stranded by the implosion.

Environmentally, it means less plastic recycled, more waste exported, and slower progress toward circular economy goals. In 2024, EU plastic waste exports rose 36% versus 2022; the continent was forced to send its problem abroad as recycling plants went idle.

How Did It Go So Wrong?

Ambitious European leaders thought that regulation, taxes, and subsidy would create an industry. Instead, they created a sector unable to survive outside artificial support, all while failing to acknowledge the fundamental economic disadvantage. The “subsidy trap” encouraged over-investment, triggering catastrophic losses for both private and public actors once market discipline returned.

Will Recovery Come?

Without radical changes in energy pricing, global competition rules, and technology, it’s hard to see a path back. Domestic demand is weak, policies are too volatile, and Europe’s cost base is increasingly uncompetitive.

A handful of survivors may limp on, but the dream of a self-sustaining, export-driven European recycling industry is dead for now. The future may bring new technology, smarter deposit schemes, and regulatory clarity, but that requires confronting the hard lessons of this exodus: only market-viable solutions will last.

And for now, the so-called circular economy remains just out of reach, as shuttered plants and bankruptcy filings mark the end of an era built on wishes, not on economic reality.

This report was compiled from dozens of recent sources, including C&EN, ChemAnalyst, EUWID Recycling, Troostwijk Auctions, Argus Media, ICIS, Sustainable Plastics, Zero Waste Europe, Resource Recycling, Chemical Recycling Europe, LinkedIn industry posts, as well as European Commission and regulator reports, in addition to build on ppPLUS own market intelligence.

#plasticwaste #plasticrecycling #chemicalrecycling #molecularrecycling #pyrolysis #depolymerization #pyoil #plastictax #ppwr

Eastman’s Kingsport, Tenn. plant was initially estimated to cost $250 million over two years, but recent financial filings suggest the price tag has crept upward. | William Griffith/Shutterstock

Eastman Chemical Company has positioned itself as a leader in “molecular recycling,” focusing on advanced chemical processes to recycle hard-to-recycle polyester plastics. The company’s flagship technology, known as Polyester Renewal Technology (PRT), uses methanolysis to break down polyester waste into its original monomers, enabling the production of new, virgin-quality plastics from waste streams that cannot be recycled mechanically. This article reviews the status of Eastman’s key projects in the United States and France, the technology used, and the specific challenges—both technical and regulatory—facing these ambitious initiatives.

Existing Facilities and Technology

Eastman’s molecular recycling facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, has been operational since early 2024 and is claimed to be profitable as it is already generating revenue. This plant serves as the model for Eastman’s subsequent molecular recycling projects and showcases the company’s advanced PRT. At steady-state capacity, the Kingsport asset will recycle 110,000 metric tons of polyester waste annually and achieved sustained operating rates of ~70% capacity by mid-2024. While Eastman resolved a mechanical issue in July 2024 and continues ramping production toward its full capacity target, current output remains below nameplate levels. Kingsport facility is recognized as a benchmark for the company’s future sites.

At the core of this technology is the chemical recycling of polyester waste—primarily polyethylene terephthalate (PET), commonly found in packaging, textiles, and various consumer products. The facility uses methanol under controlled heat and pressure to break down PET into its original monomers: dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) and ethylene glycol (EG). Once separated and purified, these monomers are used as raw materials to manufacture new, virgin-quality polyester products. The plastics produced through this process are indistinguishable in quality and performance from those made with fossil-based feedstocks, supporting the development of a true circular economy for polyester materials.



Eastman Polymerisation Renewal Technology (PRT) description by Portfolio Planning PLUS

One of the key advantages of Eastman’s methanolysis-based recycling is its ability to process types of plastics that are unsuitable for traditional mechanical recycling. This includes colored, opaque, multilayer, and contaminated PET waste—materials that typically end up in landfills or are incinerated. By converting these challenging waste streams back into high-value inputs for new products, Eastman’s technology significantly reduces plastic waste and the environmental impact associated with virgin plastic production. According to Eastman, the Kingsport facility’s process results in greenhouse gas reductions of 20–50% compared to conventional production methods using fossil resources.

Projects in Development

Longview, Texas (USA)

Eastman is planning a second molecular recycling facility in Longview, Texas, which is expected to become operational in 2028. The facility will use the same PRT (methanolysis) as the Kingsport plant, with added innovations such as thermal batteries and on-site solar power to further decarbonize the PET production process. Designed to process approximately 110,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste annually, the Longview project is part of Eastman’s broader $2.25 billion investment in new recycling infrastructure. The facility is anticipated to create around 1,000 temporary construction and trade jobs, as well as 200 permanent full-time positions once complete.

A significant development affecting the Longview project occurred on 30 May 2025, when the Trump administration canceled a $375 million federal grant that had been allocated to support the facility’s construction. This grant, which was part of a larger Department of Energy initiative, was initially approved under the Biden administration in March 2024 but was revoked as part of a broader rollback of renewable energy and decarbonization funding. The estimated total cost of the Longview project is more than $1.2 billion. Despite this setback, Eastman has publicly maintained its commitment to the project as a key component of its global circularity strategy, though the loss of federal funding introduces new financial and logistical challenges for its timely completion.

Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine, Normandy (France)

A third molecular recycling facility using is planned to be built in the Port-Jérôme industrial zone in Normandy, France, which Eastman announced on March 15, 2024. The facility is designed to be developed in two phases: Phase I aims to recycle more than 110,000 metric tonnes of hard-to-recycle polyester waste annually, while Phase II is planned to expand capacity to over 200,000 metric tonnes per year. The plant will also use PRT, which breaks down polyester plastics into their monomers for reuse.

For Phase I alone, Eastman has planned an investment exceeding $1 billion. The project is expected to create 350 direct jobs and 1,500 indirect jobs, including 500 positions during the construction phase. To secure a steady supply of feedstock, Eastman has signed agreements with partners such as Interzero Plastics Recycling to provide PET household packaging waste for the facility. Additionally, several global brands—including LVMH Beauty, Estée Lauder Companies, Clarins, Procter & Gamble, L’Oréal, and Danone—have signed letters of intent for multiyear contracts to supply the plant.

This project is currently on hold as Eastman closely tracks the evolving regulatory landscape within the European Union regarding plastic waste and packaging. However, more crucially, according to a private source, the project’s future is fundamentally threatened by the absence of any plan to supply electrical power to the plant before 2028 at the earliest—a factor that places its timely realization in serious jeopardy, regardless of regulatory developments.

Outlook: Expansion at Risk Due to Regulatory, Funding, and Power Supply Issues

Eastman’s molecular recycling initiatives face significant uncertainty, as its two flagship development projects—the Longview, Texas facility and the Normandy, France plant—are both under threat from major external challenges. The Texas project is at risk due to the loss of critical federal funding, while the Normandy facility faces not only ongoing regulatory uncertainty in the EU but, more crucially, a lack of any planned electrical power supply to the site before at least 2028. If these obstacles are not resolved, both projects could ultimately be cancelled. Eastman’s ability to realize its circular economy ambitions now depends on overcoming these substantial financial, regulatory, and infrastructure barriers—an outcome that remains highly uncertain in the current environment.

#eastman #circularity #recycling #molecularrecycling #chemicalrecycling #plasticwaste #mixedplasticwaste #polyesterrecycling #depolymerization #methanolysis #longview #kingsport #portjerome #Sustainability

Beatriz Santos | 22/01/2025 | Sustainable Plastics

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) saw publication in the Official Journal of the European Union on Jan. 22, 2025.

The legislation will officially come into force on Feb. 11, 2025. EU regulations become binding upon publication on the Official Journal. All member states are required to comply with the regulation.

The PPWR will apply from August 12, 2026, 18 months after the regulation comes into force.

The European Parliament approved the final PPWR text in November 2024. The document is available in all EU languages.

The EU Parliament had approved a preliminary version of the legislation on April 24, 2024, with 476 votes in favour, 129 against, and 24 abstentions. That version of the text only included a version in English and hadn’t undergone the required legal-linguistic review.

The PPWR includes packaging reduction targets (5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040) and require EU countries to reduce, in particular, the amount of plastic packaging waste.

Under the new rules, all packaging, except for lightweight wood, cork, textile, rubber, ceramic, porcelain and wax, will have to be recyclable by fulfilling strict criteria. It introduces, as of 2030, a recyclability performance grade scale from A to C stating the extent to which packaging is considered recyclable, being 95% grade A, 80% grade B, and 70% grade C.

The legislation includes provisions on recycling targets of 50% for plastic packaging by 2025 and 55% by 2030 and foresees recycled content targets for all types of plastic packaging, with the most demanding ones set for 2040 – including 65% recycled content for SUP beverage bottles, 50% for PET contact-sensitive packaging, and 65% for other packaging.

By 2029, 90% of single use plastic and metal beverage containers up to three litres will have to be collected separately, via deposit-return systems or other solutions that ensure the collection target is met.

Throughout the two long years after the first draft PPWR was introduced, the text has generated a lot of controversy. Some industry groups claim the legislation lacks ‘material neutrality’ by singling-out plastics, whilst others argue that secondary legislation will be required to make it work.


#recycling #plasticrecycling #plasticwaste #plasticpackaging #sustainability

Alterra closes investment round with the expectation to accelerate the commercialisation of its plastics pyrolysis technology

Investors Infinity Recycling, Chevron Phillips Chemical, LyondellBasell, and Neste, along with long-term support from Potenza Capital, have successfully closed their latest round of equity funding in Alterra Energy (formerly Vadxx Energy). This investment round is expected to accelerate the commercialization of Alterra’s plastics pyrolysis technology, designed to transform discarded plastic into valuable raw materials.

Alterra's advanced recycling technology has been modeled on ppPLUS and the mass balance of the company's demo plant in Akron has been created. One main product the technology is producing is plastics pyoil, which may be fractionnated to separate naphtha, which can be used as a feedstock returned to the cracker to produce ethylene among other products. The feedstock the technology is accepting is mostly clean polyolefin waste.

Source: Alterra, 22^nd Oct 2024 & portfolio planning PLUS.

#alterra #lyondellbasell #neste #cpchem #pyrolysis #plasticwaste #advancedrecycling #molecularrecycling #chemicalrecycling #pyoil #steamcracking #naphtha #ethylene #polyethylene

In its 2023 sustainability report, published in March, Shell is stating that:

“In 2023 we concluded that the scale of our ambition to turn 1m tonnes of plastic waste a year into pyrolysis oil by 2025 is unfeasible.”

The report justifies this step back from the previous commitment due to changing market conditions:

“While Shell sees customer demand for circular chemicals, the pace of growth globally is less than expected due to lack of available feedstock, slow technology development and regulatory uncertainty.”

On its website, Shell advocates for chemical recycling (photo) with the following statement:

“Chemical recycling through pyrolysis, where hard-to-recycle plastic waste like snack bags, ready meals, or plastic film, that are not suitable for mechanical recycling, are turned into pyrolysis oil, a liquid that replaces hydrocarbons to produce circular chemicals.”

Shell has started its strategy to build up chemical recycling capaciities by signing a strategic supply agreement with Nexus Fuels (now Nexus Circular) back in 2019. Nexus operates a 'pilot' Nexus Pyrolysis plant with a rated capacity of 50 tonnes per day at its production site in Atlanta .

Since that date, Shell has successively invested in Dutch company BlueAlp, signed pyrolysis oil supply agreements with Pryme, another Dutch company, and with Finnish company Lamor in Europe, with Environmental Solutions Asia in Singapore , and with Freepoint Eco-Systems in the U.S.A. , invested in two pyrolysis oil upgraders at its Mordijk site in The Netherlands and signed a LOU with Dialog Group Berhad in Malaysia and a MOU with the European branch of Agilyx in Norway for the development of chemical recycling plants.

This step back from the pledge to develop chemical recycling follows on the previous announcement that Shell is pulling out of planned e-SAF project in Sweden.

#chemicalrecycling #advancedrecycling #molecularrecycling #mechanicalrecycling #plasticwaste #pyoil #pyrolysisoil #plasticspyoil

The 2020 relaunch decree, in the midst of the Covid period, had postponed the tax to 1 January 2021. Then the 2021 budget law had postponed the plastic tax to 1 July 2021. The Sostegni bis decree of May 2021 had brought the plastic tax back to 1 January 2022. Then there were the two budget laws for 2022 and 2023 which postponed the tax by one year, that is, for the last, until 1 January 2024. With the 2024 budget, after many discussions on the possible abolition of the tax, the last postponement arrived until July 2024, the one currently in force.

The newest change is contained in the government's stamped amendment to the Superbonus Law Decree, under discussion in the Senate. Here the extension appears for the plastic tax: it is to come into force from 1 July 2024 to 1 July 2026.

Source: Marini di Andrea, 11^th May 2024, Il Sole 24 ORE,

#plastictax #plasticwaste #plasticrecycling

Source: LyondellBasell Corporate & Financial News, 8^th May 2024

#olefins #polyolefins #europe #assets #circularity #netzero #plasticwaste

Viridor has assumed full ownership of Quantafuel as the Oslo Stock Exchange delisted Quantafuel AS’ shares from Euronext Growth on 7th February.

Viridor, 8th Feb 2024.

#pyrolysis #plasticwaste #recycling #chemicalrecycling

The description of the Plastic Pyrolysis Process has been significantly augmented with a lot of practical information details.
#chemicalrecycling #advancedrecycling #circularity #circulareconomy #plasticwaste #recycling