Mura Technology announced recently that construction has started on the world’s first commercial-scale plant to use our revolutionary HydroPRSTM process, able to recycle all forms of plastic waste and provide the raw ingredients for a sustainable circular plastic economy. HydroPRS™ (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution) is a revolutionary advanced recycling process designed to tackle plastic that cannot currently be recycled and instead ends up polluting the natural environment.(Photo=Dr. Steve Mahon, CEO of Mura Technology)

The first plant to use the technology has begun construction in Teesside, the UK, to be operational in 2022 and able to process 80,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year. It will form the blueprint for a rapid global rollout that will see one million tonnes of capacity in development worldwide by 2025 – equivalent to nearly half the plastic packaging waste produced in the UK each year. Sites are planned in Germany, the US and Asia.

Plastic waste is an urgent environmental challenge; 350m tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide annually, with half becoming waste in less than a year. The UK alone produces 2.4m tonnes of plastic packaging – the second highest per capita in the world. Yet globally only 9% of plastic has ever been recycled – the vast majority (79%) currently ends up in landfill or the environment and 8m tonnes enters the oceans every year, predicted to increase tenfold by 2025 if solutions aren’t found. This ‘lost resource’ of plastic waste is a huge economic opportunity – valued at up to $120bn per year according to the World Economic Forum.

Mura’s proprietary HydroPRS™ process, utilising Cat-HTRTM technology, uses supercritical steam to convert plastics back into the oils and chemicals they were made from, ready to be used for new virgin-grade plastic products. It can recycle all forms of plastic – including ‘unrecyclable’ products such as multi-layer, flexible plastics used in packaging – with no limit to the number of times the same material can be recycled. This means it has the potential to eliminate single use plastic and make the raw ingredients for a circular plastics economy, creating value, not waste.

Global plastic production also creates an estimated 390m tonnes of CO2 every year – equivalent to over 172m cars. It accounts for 6% of global oil consumption today and is set to increase to 20% by 2050. Advanced recycling processes reduce the need for fossil fuel extraction for virgin plastics. In addition, they can save approximately 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of plastic recycled compared to incineration. On completion, the Teesside plant has the potential to eliminate up to 120,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, compared to incineration of the same plastic waste.

(IRuniverse)

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