Using an FDA-approved additive, ReCon^2 has developed a method for verifying recycled content claims. | Courtesy of ReCon^2
Rising prices for post-consumer resin also bring a greater incentive for shady suppliers to cheat. A U.K. nonprofit is commercializing a technology that will detect lies about recycled plastic use.
Star Plastics has made a $5 million investment in a pair of twin-screw extruders to boost capacity. | Courtesy of Star Plastics
Recycling and compounding company Star Plastics installed the first of two additional extruders at its West Virginia plant to expand its capacity and product offerings.
The researchers will complete lab-scale testing in the coming months and hope to kick off a commercial demonstration project in 2023. | Alex Traksel/Shutterstock
A Johns Hopkins University team has developed a catalytic hydrocracking process that converts mixed plastics into the chemicals benzene, toluene and xylene.
The details of what’s being called the “Houston Recycling Collaboration” have yet to be worked out, but an agreement has set the process in motion to divert residential plastic scrap for chemical recycling. | Roschetzky Photography/Shutterstock
LyondellBasell and ExxonMobil were among the companies that signed an agreement to advance chemical recycling for household plastic scrap in Houston.
Avangard Innovative’s Waller, Texas facility will be home to the first U.S. deployment of Honeywell’s chemical recycling technology. | Courtesy of Avangard
Avangard Innovative has become one of the first examples of a large mechanical recycling company embracing chemical recycling technologies.
Eastman CEO Mark Costa at right, with Emmanuel Marcon at a recent meeting around the company’s investment. | Via Emmanuel Marcon Twitter, @EmmanuelMacron
Procter & Gamble, Danone, L’Oréal and other global brand owners have signed letters of intent to buy chemically recycled resin from a $1 billion plant Eastman is planning in France.
Several technologies for processing post-consumer PET into food and drink packaging have been approved. | srisakorn wonglakorn/Shutterstock
A food-safety panel approved 17 applications to use Starlinger, SML and Protec technologies to recycle post-consumer PET into food and drink packaging. It rejected two other requests.
The Cyclyx plant, which is scheduled to come on-line in late 2022, will provide scrap plastic feedstock for ExxonMobil’s upcoming chemical recycling facility in Baytown, Texas. | michelmond/Shutterstock
A scrap plastic feedstock company is planning a Gulf Coast facility capable of preparing 132 million pounds of material annually for chemical recycling.
ByBlocks can be made from almost any combination of low-grade, contaminated scrap plastics, which don’t need to be washed or pre-processed before going into the ByFusion line. | Courtesy of ByFusion
ByFusion, an equipment supplier based in Los Angeles, is selling a modular system that processes low-grade mixed plastics into construction products.
Digital nose technology developed by French company Aryballe provides consistent, AI-powered analysis while different humans experience smells differently. | Courtesy of Aryballe
Artificial intelligence is already used to recognize how different scrap plastics look. Now, a Michigan compounder is testing AI to evaluate how recycled resins smell.