Paris – A new commercial agreement signed by TotalEnergies and Paprec, a leading French independent plastics recycler, is designed to put in place the first links in a new value chain being developed in France for the chemical recycling of plastic film wastes.
In September 2020, TotalEnergies announced plans to invest more than €500 million to convert its Grandpuits refinery into a zero-crude platform. The company has since entered into numerous partnerships, designed to see the construction of facilities for (aviation) biofuels and bioplastics production, as well as plastic waste recycling, all powered by solar energy. The project is part of TotalEnergies strategy to get to net-zero emissions by 2050.
The plastics recycling plant is being built by TotalEnergies (60%) in partnership with advanced recycling company Plastic Energy (40%) and will be based on the pyrolysis technology developed by Plastic Energy. It will have a capacity to handle 15,000 tons of waste per year and is scheduled to be operational in 2024.
The present deal is aimed at securing the feedstock supply for the plant. Under the terms of the agreement, Citeo, the French household packaging compliance scheme, will supply a stream of flexible plastic waste sorted from post-consumer packaging to the Paprec Plastiques 80 plant in Amiens. Here, a sorting and preparation line will be built for the waste, which will then be converted into feedstock for the production of virgin-quality recycled plastics.
"This long-term agreement is a major milestone for our advanced recycling plant at Grandpuits, as it guarantees a supply of waste of French-origin," said Valérie Goff, Senior Vice President Renewable Fuels & Chemicals at TotalEnergies. "It is a tangible example of TotalEnergies' commitment to developing a circular economy for plastics and fully contributes to our ambition of producing 30% circular polymers by 2030.”
"Our job is to provide our customers and partners with circular packaging that makes it possible to return material to its original use and achieve carbon savings. We are taking an aggressive, innovative approach to monolayer resins such as PET, HDPE and PVC,” said Sébastien Petithuguenin, Chairman and CEO of Paprec Plastiques.
“This innovation with TotalEnergies supplements mechanical, or ‘low carbon’ recycling, which cannot offer the same circularity for plastic that’s not as eco-designed or that’s too soiled.”