Technological watch

Recycling Technologies Ltd (‘Recycling Technologies’), a specialist plastic recycling technology provider and Brightlands Chemelot Campus, an innovation, research and technological growth hub announce today they have signed the first agreement towards the installation of Recycling Technologies’ first European plastic chemical recycling machine, the RT7000, within the Campus in the Netherlands.

Recycling Technologies has developed a technology that can recycle plastic waste into a valuable feedstock for new plastic production. The RT7000 is a scalable patented technology that recycles low-grade plastic waste into a feedstock, trademarked as Plaxx®, for new plastic production. It enables the creation of value from plastic waste, which is today difficult to recycle through current mechanical recycling methods and is therefore disposed of through landfilling, incineration or exported.

Brightlands Chemelot Campus is located close to the main petrochemical hub in Europe from Antwerp and Rotterdam to the Rhine and Meuse accounting for 40% of Europe’s chemical industry employing over 320,000 people. The campus together with Chemelot industrial park forms one of the largest research and industrial sites in Europe. The Campus has recently launched its “sustainability and circular hub” plan to play a leading role in implementing innovative solutions to solve ecological problems. This initiative is based on shared research and commercial programmes for the development of new, sustainable and recyclable materials which can be applied on a large scale to maintain the region’s leadership position in petrochemicals. These companies and research organisations are already making valuable contributions in Europe.

This agreement marks a significant step for Recycling Technologies, representing its first site outside of the United Kingdom to showcase, test and deploy its technology throughout Europe. This news follows a joint statement in December 2019 announcing an initiative with Citeo, Total, Mars and Nestlé to develop chemical recycling of plastics in France. The company already has a commercial scale plant in development in Perth, Scotland partly funded from a €10m investment from Neste and Mirova and a grant from Zero Waste Scotland.

The next steps for the Brightlands Chemelot Campus agreement will be to secure the necessary permitting and planning for the new plant, definition of the site layout and initiation of groundwork.

Elena Parisi, Sales and Marketing Director at Recycling Technologies said,

“The strategic location of the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, at the heart of the petrochemical industry, our shared values of innovation, excellence and sustainability, and the mutual commitment to deliver a circular economy for plastics have been key factors driving our decision to begin our internationalisation from the Netherlands. The Campus has already attracted a number of companies with smart and commercial technologies to address major ecological challenges making it another ideal partner for us to advance the development and deployment of our technology in Europe.”

Bert Kip, CEO Brightlands Chemelot Campus:

“Brightlands Chemelot Campus and Chemelot Industrial Park, naturally working in cooperation with the major parties at the Chemelot Industrial Park, are jointly opting to develop a circular chemical industry. This will involve a step-by-step replacement of today’s fossil fuels – natural gas and naphtha – with circular carbon from plastic waste and biomass, a complex transition process that requires new technologies. Some of these necessary technologies will come from tech startups that are based at the campus and/or the site, and some will be working from the Brightsite innovation center founded in 2019. We are particularly pleased and proud that Recycling Technologies has decided to set up their first European site for recycling plastic at Brightlands Chemelot Campus, an important step in implementing the Circular Hub strategy.”

About Recycling TechnologiesUK-based company, Recycling Technologies, is on a mission to accelerate the evolution of plastic into a more sustainable material. Currently, 88% of the plastic used in the world is either buried, burned or leaked into the environment1. This means that the world recycles only 12% of the 359 million tons of plastic produced each year2.

Recycling Technologies has developed an innovative technology, the RT7000, which turns hard-to-recycle plastic such as films, bags, laminated plastics into an oil, called Plaxx®, used as a feedstock for new plastic production. The RT7000 is modular and small-scale, designed to fit easily onto existing waste treatment and recycling sites, providing a scalable solution to recycle waste plastic anywhere in the world.

About Brightlands Chemelot CampusAt Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Sittard-Geleen, entrepreneurs, scientists and students work together in the fields of smart materials and sustainable production of chemicals. This results in the building of bridges between fundamental scientific research and product and process innovations in companies. The campus and adjacent Chemelot industrial park form one giant laboratory where the brightest, highly qualified experts from universities and the business community work together.

In a short period of time, the campus has grown to become a place where more than 2,000 knowledge workers and 800 students work for more than 90 companies and knowledge institutes. The strategy focuses on accelerating the development of the campus to become an excellent community by 2023 with more than 100 companies and no fewer than 3,900 knowledge workers and 1,000 students.

Brightlands Chemelot Campus is part of Brightlands, an open innovation community made up of four campuses that are working on the major challenges in the fields of sustainability and health. Together with prominent companies such as DSM, the Province of Limburg, Maastricht University, Maastricht UMC+,, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Venlo are the initiators of Brightlands.

Source: Recycling Technologies, press release, 2020-04-22.