Technological watch

Baytown plantExxonMobil announced successful startup of one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America. The facility at the company’s integrated manufacturing complex in Baytown, Texas, uses proprietary technology to break down hard-to-recycle plastics and transform them into raw materials for new products. It is capable of processing more than 80 million pounds of plastic waste per year, supporting a circular economy for post-use plastics and helping divert plastic waste currently sent to landfills.

Since the start of pilot operations at Baytown last year, ExxonMobil has recycled nearly 15 million pounds of plastic waste. The proprietary Exxtend™ technology enables the breakdown of plastic waste that would previously be destined for landfills – from synthetic athletic fields to bubble wrap and motor oil bottles.

The company helped form Cyclyx International LLC, a joint venture created to collect and sort large volumes of plastic waste and is investing in a first-of-its-kind plastic waste processing facility in Houston to help supply ExxonMobil’s Baytown advanced recycling facility.

xxonMobil plans to build advanced recycling facilities at many of its other manufacturing sites around the world, which would give it the capacity to process up to 1 billion pounds of plastic waste annually by year-end 2026. The company is assessing facilities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Beaumont, Texas; and Joliet, Illinois; as well as at sites in Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore and Canada.