Dow has signed a feedstock agreement with recycling technology provider Freepoint Eco-Systems for 65,000 tonnes/year of pyrolysis oil.
The pyrolysis oil will be produced at a planned chemical recycling facility owned and operated by Freepoint Eco-Systems Eloy Recycling LLC, a Freepoint Eco-Systems affiliate. The plant will be built in Eloy, Arizona, and it will have capacity to process around 180,000 tons of end-of-life plastic waste from the region.
The facility is expected to convert approximately 70% of every ton of plastic waste into pyrolysis oil. The feedstock will be sold exclusively to Dow on a first phase of the Arizona plant, which is expected to process 90,000 tonnes of waste a year and to start operations in the first half of 2026. The facility is expected to be ISCC-Plus certified upon completion.
Dow will use the pyrolysis oil to replace conventional feedstock in manufacturing new plastics at its US Gulf Coast plants. Applications will include good-grade packaging, as well as medical and pharmaceutical packaging.
"Our agreement with Freepoint Eco-Systems marks another important step in Dow's pursuit to source circular supply and transform end-of-life plastic waste into products that help our customers meet their recycled content goals," said Victor Zapata, North America commercial vice president of Dow packaging and speciality plastics. "The Dow team is energized to work with an innovative partner like Freepoint Eco-Systems that shares our commitment to building a much-needed infrastructure for circular plastics,” he added.
The announcement follows an array of Dow investment in sustainable materials, including $6.5 billion for its Path2Zero project in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. In Europe, it is working to achieve net CO2 neutrality at its Terneuzen facility, the Netherlands, facility by 2050. Dow is also building one of Europe’s largest chemical recycling plants in Böhlen, Germany, in partnership with Mura Technology.