A major new global chemical recycling partnership has been announced that will help turn plastic waste into reuseable material.
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A has revealed its subsidiary NextChem is to join forces with Agilyx Corporation to help advance the establishment of an advanced chemical recycling facility.
The agreement will lead to the two firms pooling their technology to increase the recycling of plastics into useful materials, making them chemical suppliers to firms requiring materials such as circular olefins and circular fuels.
This will be done by using Agilyx’s proprietary chemical recycling process to turn used plastics back into their original chemical forms, the announcement stated.
It means a range of plastics that cannot currently be easily recycled will still be transformed into something useful, with a range of third party clients benefitting from having their waste plastic transformed in this way. Two projects have already been lined up, one of them in Europe and the other in South America.
“This alliance represents an acceleration for Agilyx to expand our footprint and implement our advanced recycling technology globally,” Agilyx chief executive officer Tim Stedman said.
He added that NextChem is “a global leader in the deployment and realisation of projects and technologies for energy transition and circular economy,” making them ideal partners.
NextChem and Maire Tecnimont Group chief executive Pierroberto Folgiero said the partnership would further expand the firm’s contribution to the “circular economy”, including “waste to chemicals” work.
The quest to find solutions for waste plastic continues to be a priority for the chemicals industry and governments alike, both due to the environmental issues involved and the potential benefits of being able to re-use the base chemicals from waste.
According to the British Plastics Federation, the advent of chemical recycling means it is now technically possible to recycle all kinds of plastic, although in some cases “economic and logistical factors” may mitigate against this.