31 Oct 2023 — Re Sustainability, Asia’s largest integrated waste management company, and PolyCycl, a chemical recycler of post-consumer plastics, are developing a network of feedstock facilities in India for chemical recycling. 

The collaboration aims to extract low-grade plastics, such as single-use flexible films and packaging waste, from multiple streams and prepare them as feedstock for chemical recycling projects run by PolyCycl and its partners. 

The to-be-recycled plastics are a mix of different resins and are contaminated, which makes them incompatible for conversion to pellets using conventional mechanical recycling methods. The first such sorting and pre-processing facility will be built in Delhi. 

The companies explain that by leveraging chemical recycling techniques the plastics will be transformed into a range of hydrocarbon molecules that serve as essential building blocks for manufacturing sustainable circular polymers, green chemicals and renewable fuels.

Boosting India’s circular economy
According to data from India’s Central Pollution Control Board, over 10,000 metric tons of waste plastics end up in landfills nationwide every day. Globally, more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, with over 5 billion metric tons dumped in landfills across different parts of the world today.

“From a material perspective, waste plastics are a reserve of hydrocarbons that we have sitting above the ground. While they currently pose environmental and societal challenges, our collaboration with Re Sustainability aims to convert them into a valuable resource for a plastic-to-plastic circular economy,” says Amit Tandon, CEO of PolyCycl. 

“Through this collaboration, we are excited to demonstrate commercial-scale extraction of low-grade waste plastics from landfills using automated and high-throughput methods. A large part of such plastics cannot be recycled using conventional methods and the collaboration aims to expand the quantum of plastics being recycled in the country.”

Masood Mallick, CEO at Re Sustainability, adds: “Re Sustainability’s journey toward sustainable resource recovery and circular economy demonstrates our commitment to creating long-term value and building resilience for a more sustainable world. We see green innovation and partnerships as the two most significant drivers of the circular economy in India, enabling environmental protection and resource recovery at scale.”

Edited by Natalie Schwertheim

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