IRVING, Texas—ExxonMobil recently began operations at a large-scale chemical recycling facility in Baytown, Texas, and the company is looking for additional sites for chemical recycling plants, reports Resource Recycling.
The facility has processed 15 million pounds of material so far using proprietary Exxtend technology and plans to process up to 80 million pounds of polyolefins per year.
Potential sites for additional chemical recycling plants include Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Beaumont, Texas; and Joliet, Illinois. In addition, the company is looking into locations in Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore and Canada.
“We’ve proven our proprietary advanced recycling technology at Baytown, and now we’re leveraging our scale and integration to increase production of certified circular plastics to meet growing demand,” Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company, said in a press release.
“There is substantial demand for recycled plastics,” she said, “and advanced recycling can play an important role by breaking down plastics that could not be recycled in traditional, mechanical methods.”
Sealed Air, Ahold Delhaize USA, Berry Global and Amcor have contracted with ExxonMobil to buy its chemically recycled feedstock. Additionally, ExxonMobil is partnering with LyondellBasell and Cyclyx International to build a $100 million plastics processing facility in Houston, which will launch in 2024 to help supply the Baytown facility.
According to a recent Deloitte survey, 75% of c-level business leaders said their organizations have increased their sustainability investments over the past year. Nearly 20% said they've increased investments "significantly." When asked to rank the issues most pressing to their organizations, many leaders rated climate change as a top three issue, ahead of innovation, competition for talent and supply chain challenges, among other options.
NACS houses helpful sustainability-related resources online under the Sustainability Playbook, where retailers can scour information related to ESG, packaging, alternative fuels and energy saving opportunities.