Editor’s Note: Chemical recycling will be featured in sessions at the 2026 Plastics Recycling Conference, Feb. 23-25 in San Diego, California. Register now for the best rates.
Specialty film producer Charter Next Generation has agreed to buy polyethylene (PE) produced by Shell Polymers using chemically recycled feedstock, for use in high-performance flexible packaging.
In April, Freepoint Eco-Systems shipped its first rail car of pyrolysis oil (pyoil) from its Hebron, Ohio, plant to Shell’s Norco refining complex in Louisiana. The following month, Shell announced it would use pyoil from Freepoint to make virgin-quality PE resin at its Monaca, Pennsylvania, facility.
The pyrolysis process uses heat and pressure to break down discarded polyolefins into their building blocks for reuse in making virgin-quality plastics. Pyrolysis is one form of chemical recycling, which also is known as advanced recycling.
“Advanced recycling represents one pathway toward achieving circularity in flexible packaging, especially for high-performance applications where functionality cannot be compromised,” said John Garnett, senior vice president of sustainability, technical and innovation at Charter Next Generation.
In 2019, Shell announced its first use of pyoil to make new plastics and started up the Pennsylvania PE complex plant in 2022, leveraging the nearby Marcellus and Utica shale fields for natural gas feedstocks. The plant remains the first significant resin production built outside the Gulf Coast in at least 40 years.
However, that isolation combined with lackluster global demand for PE has led Shell Polymers to reconsider the investment. During a late July investor call, Shell CEO Wael Sawan said the company was considering selling the plant. “The issue is it’s our only one, our only major facility, and that’s why we’ve said we’re not the natural owner of that asset.”
