As the reuse of resources attracts attention, the international community is now creating new business opportunities for recycling waste plastics.

British plastic recycling company Recycling Technologies, Finland's Neste and consumer goods giant Unilever announced on October 16 that they would partner in a waste plastic recycling business. The company aims to collect waste plastic containers currently in landfills and reuse them for chemical recycling. Public businesses will also support the project, with UK Research Innovation (UKRI), the UK's strategic policy research institute, granting £3.1m for the above three projects.

In addition, Rams Technology, U.S. energy engineering company, and New Hope Technologies announced that they have recently agreed to partner on an industrial waste plastic treatment business. The two companies will work on the development of thermal recycling technology in the future.

On the other hand, the movement that the waste plastic business has already started is transmitted. On October 8, Chevron Flips Chemical (CPChem) announced that it has successfully produced recycled polyethylene on a commercial scale. CPChem possesses advanced chemical recycling technology made from waste plastic. The company said the success of the commercial production was "the first of its kind in the United States."

Russia is no exception. Siboul, the country's largest petrochemical company, announced in early September that it had gan producing green polyethylene terephthalate (PET) at its site in Blagovesichesk, the capital of Siberia's southern Amur state. The company plans to process 34,000 tons of recycled plastic annually to produce granular PET.

Total has decided to convert its existing oil facilities into plastic recycling. On September 24, the company announced plans to stop crude oil processing at its Lampui refinery in the Seine-et-Marne province in the first quarter of 2021 and convert it into a terminal, as well as convert the Lampuy refinery into a base for the production of renewable diesel and aviation fuels and bio plastics, as well as plastic recycling.

Waste plastic includes plastic products that have been disposed of after use, plastic haze, waste tires, and the like that have come out in the manufacturing process. In late September, BASF, a general chemical manufacturer, announced that it would invest EUR 16 million in Pyram Innovations, Germany, which is known for its pyrolysis process technology for waste tires. Pyram plans to operate a plant that can pyrolysis 10,000 tons of waste tires annually and add two more by 2022. On the other hand, BASF will lead to the production of chemicals from pyrolytic oil through recycling.

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Naoya Abe

 Former Bloomberg News reporter and editor

 Capitol Intelligence Group (Washington D.C.) as Tokyo bureau chief

 Currently working as Managing editor of the news site MIRUPLUS.

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