Key European plastics recycling projects scrapped

Borealis, Dow, and Neste separately have decided to drop plans for major plastics recycling plants in Europe. The moves add to the spate of plastics recycling plant closures and bankruptcies that have taken place in the region due to plentiful, cheaper virgin plastic undercutting the price of recycled plastic.

Borealis has put on hold its plan to open a 60,000-metric-ton-(t)-per-year polyolefin mechanical recycling plant in Schwechat, Austria. The Austrian firm had aimed to open the plant by year-end. “A detailed evaluation of the project revealed that in the current market environment the plant would not meet the expected performance targets,” the company tells C&EN in an email.

Meanwhile, Dow has ditched its plan, announced in 2022, to build a 120,000-t-per-year plant to chemically recycle mixed plastic waste in Böhlen, Germany. The recycling facility was due to deploy Mura Technology’s Hydro-PRT technology, which uses supercritical steam to crack polymer bonds in plastics to form oil.

It follows Dow’s decision in July to permanently close its ethylene cracker and associated petrochemical facilities in Böhlen in 2027. Oils from the proposed plastics recycling plant would have been used as feedstock in the cracker. Dow says it is closing the cracker because of high operating costs in Europe, including the high cost of energy.

Separately, Neste and Belgian plastics supplier Ravago Manufacturing have halted plans to jointly build and operate a 55,000-t-per-year plastics-to-chemicals recycling plant in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. The plant would have used a pyrolysis technology developed by the US firm Alterra Energy.

The industry group Plastics Recyclers Europe has been warning about unfair competition for European plastics recyclers for more than a year. The group sent a letter to all European Union member governments in May stating that the sector “is facing a deepening crisis that requires political action.” Prices for virgin materials remain much lower, demand for recycled content is weak, and third-country—including Chinese—competition is intensifying, the group states.

Europe produces more than 20 million t per year of ethylene, a key raw material for polymers. The region also recycles about 10 million t of plastic each year. Recycling plastic mechanically saves about 2.5 t of carbon dioxide for each 1 t of plastic produced compared with the production of virgin plastic from oil, according to European recycling association EuRIC.