The oil giant quietly abandons 1 million tons of waste plastic recycling project- Jiaxing Fuda Chemical Fiber Factory

The oil giant quietly abandons 1 million tons of waste plastic recycling project

2025 sustainability targets for the plastics and packaging industry are looming, but oil giant Shell has quietly abandoned plans to use chemical recycling to turn 1 million tonnes of plastic waste into pyrolysis oil.

Shell states in its 2023 Sustainability Report, “ The target of converting 1 million tonnes of plastic waste per year into pyrolysis oil by 2025 is unfeasible , Shell came to this conclusion mainly based on three reasons: lack of raw materials, slow technological development, and regulatory uncertainty.

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The pyrolysis upgrade unit is still operating normally

Shell is building two pyrolysis upgrade units in the Netherlands and Singapore, which are expected to process up to 50,000 tons of pyrolysis oil per year.

Pyrolysis oil is used as a feedstock to create new plastics, replacing fossil fuel sources.

Shell's report states: "In 2023, we signed several strategic cooperation agreements with partners to obtain plastic waste feedstock and enable long-term storage of pyrolysis oil. Our new pyrolysis oil upgrade at Shell Chemical Park in Moerdijk, the Netherlands R&D work on the device is still ongoing and the plant is expected to be put into production in 2024.”

Shell began using pyrolysis oil at its chemical plant in Norco, Louisiana, in 2019. In November of the same year, the company began promoting 2025 as the starting point for its chemical plants to use 1 million tons of plastic waste per year.

Shell spokesman Curtis Smith told the Guardian in a report on July 17: “With or without regulations, our aim is to increase circularity and move away from a linear economy towards products and materials being reused, recycled and recycled. The Economy of Utilization and Recycling.”

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Experts question feasibility of chemical recycling

Shell's retraction comes amid growing concerns about the viability of chemical recycling, also known as high-spec recycling, and particularly its environmental impact. For example, a Center for Climate Integrity report titled “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling” points to instances where plastics industry experts have questioned this energy-intensive process.

In a recent Plastics Today column, John Spevacek echoed these concerns: "Chemical recycling is not feasible." He writes that the whole idea of breaking down plastic into its different components and then using them to make the same plastic is fundamentally unsound from an energy perspective. "

However, on a webpage dedicated to chemical recycling, Shell noted in January that the partnership with Braskem would “increase the volume of recycling used in the production of polypropylene (50,000 tonnes of rPP) at Braskem as part of a wider value chain lift .”