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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 seventh extension of the Italian Plastic Tax until July 2026 has been announced.

The Plastic Tax is a tax with a fixed value of 0.45 € that producers, importers and consumers should pay for each kilo of plastic products sold or purchased.

The 2020 budget law of the Giallorossi Conte government had introduced the Plastic Tax, i.e. the tax on the consumption of single-use plastic products, The tax, designed to target the use of polluting single-use plastics, immediately proved to be very complicated to apply, and had sparked a revolt among companies in the affected sector.

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 

LyondellBasell today announced the formal launch of a strategic review of the European assets of its Olefins & Polyolefins and Intermediates & Derivatives business units. The assessment will evaluate the assets through the lens of the company's strategy to Grow & Upgrade the Core, Build a Profitable Circular and Low Carbon Solutions Business, and Step Up Performance & Culture.

"At the 2023 Capital Markets Day, we stated our intent to concentrate our portfolio around businesses with long-lasting competitive advantage and to reinvest around those advantaged areas generating superior returns at meaningful scale," said Peter Vanacker, LyondellBasell chief executive officer. "These criteria have not changed."

The company's investments in a commercial-scale MoReTec plant, LyondellBasell's proprietary technology to convert plastic waste into liquid raw materials, and the development of a circularity hub in the Cologne, Germany region will continue as planned. LyondellBasell will also continue to invest and leverage its differential technology position as a key enabler to grow and upgrade the core asset base.

"The company will prioritize its investments to align operations with our circularity and net zero ambitions," Vanacker added. "We understand that strategic assessments can create uncertainty for our employees and customers, but we are committed to operate our assets safely and reliably throughout this process."

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