Germany-based Revalyu Resources GmbH has broken ground on its first PET recycling facility in the United States. The plant, to be located at the Gateway Regional Park in Statesboro, Ga., will have a processing capacity of 90,000 metric tons of post-consumer PET per year and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
Revalyu will use its glycolysis chemical recycling technology to depolymerize PET. The company operates a PET recycling facility in India, where it has already recycled over 6 billion bottles into recycled PET. Revalyu says its recycled pellets have similar properties to virgin PET, whilst reportedly using 75 percent less water and 91 percent less energy in its production process.
“Used PET plastic can now be efficiently, profitably and easily recycled again and again without degradation of quality,” said Vivek Tandon, Revalyu founder, presumably contrasting chemical recycling of PET with mechanical recycling, that cannot at present take place more than once or twice before polymer chains become too short and feeble.
Revalyu currently sells 100 percent recycled PET pellets and filament yarns to over 60 customers in over 15 countries. In 2021, Heraeus Group acquired a majority stake in the company.