LyondellBasell forms joint venture to build plastic waste sorting and recycling facility and plans to build advanced recycling plant

21 November 2022

LyondellBasell and 23 Oaks Investments, Leiferde/Lower Saxony, Germany, signed an agreement to create Source One Plastics, a joint venture that will build an energy efficient, advanced plastic waste sorting and recycling facility in Germany.

Using renewable energy from wind and biomass, the new unit is designed to process the amount of plastic packaging waste generated by approximately 1.3 million German citizens per year. This waste is not recycled today and is mostly incinerated.

The Source One Plastics facility will produce processed waste that will provide a material part of the feedstock for an advanced recycling plant that LyondellBasell plans to build at its Wesseling, Germany, site. Using LyondellBasell's proprietary MoReTec technology, this plant will be the first commercial scale, single-train advanced recycling plant, designed to demonstrate its capability for further scalability. LyondellBasell already operates a semi-industrial scale MoReTec plant at its Ferrara, Italy, site.

LyondellBasell's new plant is designed to convert hard-to-recycle post-consumer plastic waste into feedstock for new plastic materials. Once in operation, it will enable recycling of most types of plastic materials such as multi-layered food packaging items or mixed plastic containers. The final investment decision on this project is scheduled for the coming months. Both projects contribute to LyondellBasell's sustainability ambition to end plastic waste in the environment.

"We are committed to supporting our customers to meet their demand for renewable and circular solutions," says Yvonne van der Laan, LyondellBasell Executive Vice President, Circular and Low Carbon Solutions. "To truly achieve a circular economy, we have to find creative solutions to meet society's needs. We are taking an important first step into the upstream side of the business to secure access to plastic waste that we will convert into new plastic materials at our advanced recycling plants. This will enable us to meet our circularity ambition and produce two million tonnes of polymers from recycled or renewable resources annually by 2030."

23 Oaks Investments is a strategic solution provider in the upcycling of post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic waste with extensive experience in the plastics industry. The Source One Plastics joint venture will provide a broad portfolio of services including waste procurement, sorting, and pre-treatment to deliver feedstock suitable for producing high-quality PCR material for a range of applications.

"With our global experience at all levels of the circular economy and our extensive knowledge in all areas of the plastic recycling value chain combined with our strong hands-on approach, we feel we have right mix of competencies to make Source One Plastics a success," says Kai Hoyer, Managing Partner of 23 Oaks Investment. "Together with LyondellBasell's commitment to expand on its circular polymer product offering and its work to develop advanced recycling into an industrial scale technology, 23 Oaks can contribute its part to make this a reality."

In addition to its advanced recycling semi-industrial scale plant, LyondellBasell holds a 50% share in Quality Circular Polymers (QCP). QCP uses a mechanical recycling process to produce premium plastic pellets from post-consumer packaging waste for use in such applications as electrical appliances, washing detergent bottles and suitcases.