Plastic waste is a massive global issue. Today, only 10% of post-consumer plastic is recycled. Because of its chemical complexity, most of the plastic waste ends up in landfills, incinerators, and the environment.
ExxonMobil announced the successful launch of one of North America’s largest advanced recycling facilities in December. The facility is located in Baytown, Texas, at the company’s integrated manufacturing complex.
The company employs proprietary technology to treat difficult-to-recycle plastics and convert them into raw materials for new products.
The facility has the capacity to process more than 80 million pounds of plastic waste per year.
ExxonMobil has recycled nearly 15 million pounds of plastic waste since the start of pilot operations in Baytown last year. The proprietary Exxtend™ technology allows the breakdown of plastic waste that would otherwise end up in landfills.
Previously, Cyclyx International, ExxonMobil, and LyondellBasell signed an agreement to move forward with the development of a first-of-its-kind plastic waste sorting and processing facility in the Houston area. By connecting community recycling programmes to new and more advanced recycling technologies that have the potential to accept a much wider variety of plastic materials.
ExxonMobil’s Baytown facility advanced recycling facility is supplied by a plastic waste processing facility in Houston.
ExxonMobil is a founding member of the Houston Recycling Collaboration, which brings together government and industry to expand infrastructure for mechanical and advanced recycling technologies and increase access to recycling programmes.
ExxonMobil intends to construct advanced recycling facilities at many of its other manufacturing sites around the world, allowing it to process up to 1 billion pounds of plastic waste annually by the end of 2026.
Galactik Views