Ineos Styrolution, the global leader in styrenics and part of the Ineos Group, will collaborate with Indaver NV, a European waste management company headquartered in Belgium that has developed depolymerization technology in which plastics are converted into high-grade recycled resources, including styrene. The partnership is aimed at moving this technology forward into the market.
In the past, Indaver established a development program called "Plastics2Chemicals" (P2C) aimed at finding a safe recycling process for post-consumer plastics for which there are no proper recycling possibilities available. Years of research and development yielded a successful depolymerization and purification process that has already been intensively tested. According to Paul De Bruycker, CEO Indaver, the project is "an example of the industry’s sustained commitment to help achieve the European objectives in valorizing plastics."
Indaver now plans to set up a Plastics2Chemicals demo-installation in the port of Antwerp, in the near vicinity of the Ineos Styrolution site, which will have a recycling capacity of 15,000 metric tons a year. The plant is scheduled to go into operation in the first half of 2021.
The initial focus of the collaboration will be to fully align the output of Indaver’s depolymerization process with feedstock specifications of Ineos Styrolution’s polymerization process.
Ineos Styrolution has a strong commitment to sustainability. Speaking at a recent Pre-K event in Antwerp, Rob Buntinx, Ineos Styrolution President, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said the company had pledged to ensure that by 2025 all Ineos polystyrene sold for packaging purposes would have a recycled content of at least 30 percent. This will require access to waste, and partners providing collection, sorting and processing technology. To that end, the company has entered into various collaborations in order, as Buntinx said, "to go further into the value chain to get everyone on board."