Pursuing its ongoing quest to develop a portfolio of sustainable alternatives to its traditional offerings, Ineos Styrolution has announced that it has signed an offtake agreement with sustainable waste management company Indaver for recycled styrene monomer.
The monomer is to be produced by Indaver from post-consumer waste and will enable Ineos to replace the styrene monomer it uses to produce polystyrene by a recycled feedstock, thus closing the loop towards a more circular economy for polystyrene.
The benefits are tremendous, said Alexander Glück, President EMEA at Ineos Styrolution as it diverts plastics waste from landfill and incineration and enabling it to become a valuable resource. “Together with Indaver we reduce waste, we produce polystyrene with identical properties as the virgin material with a lower CO2footprint and we reduce the use of fossil feedstock.”
Especially gratifying is the fact that the recycled polystyrene produced via the process can meet stringent food grade specification. The depolymerisation technology, which essentially simply converts the polystyrene back into its building block, styrene monomer, provides a virgin-like source of feedstock to produce recycled polystyrene that is indistinguishable from virgin. This significantly expands the possibilities for recycling, including polystyrene waste that could previously only be used for conversion into low-value applications.
“We are very pleased with this agreement”, says Paul de Bruycker, CEO at Indaver. “Our companies share the same vision of a true circular economy for polystyrene.”
The company’s new plant will be based in Antwerp, Belgium and start production in 2024.