Sustainable Plastics - April 2020 - 31

recycling

collect the waste. It is vital that
we have the right feed. And
third, we need to communicate
our message. Brand owners,
retailers, converters, recyclers:
they all need to know about
us," he said.

Closing the loop
in the US
Next to the SCS initiative,
Trinseo has embarked on other chemical recycling projects
in collaboration with partners,
both in Europe and in the USA.
Via polystyrene supplier
Americas Styrenics (AmSty),
a joint venture equally owned
by Trinseo LLC and Chevron
Phillips Chemical Company LP,
AmSty has set up Regenyx, a
joint venture with Agilyx, an Oregon-based chemical recycling
company that has developed
technology to convert waste
plastics to low carbon fuels
and chemicals. The process,
called PolyUsable, converts
used polystyrene products
back into their original liquid
form, styrene monomer. New
polystyrene products can then
be made from this recycled
styrene monomer without any
degradation of quality or value.
The new joint venture, Regenyx, took over the assets of Agilyx's Oregon, facility, which was
already shipping recycled styrene monomer to AmSty based

on an offtake agreement signed
the previous year.

European initiatives
Trinseo is also collaborating
with Ineos Styrolution and Agilyx
in Europe, to build a commercial
scale chemical recycling plant in
Europe, at a location that remains
to be announced. "The new plant
will be capable of processing
up to 50 metric tons a day, thus
18 kT/y, of post-consumer PS
feedstock into styrene oil, which
will be used by Trinseo and Ineos to produce virgin quality PS,"
Renvoise said. Trinseo has two
"well-located" plants in Europe,
he continued, one in Belgium,
Tessenderlo, and another in Germany, in Schkopau, which will
process the styrene monomer
from the project. "It will be operational by 2022," said Renvoise.
The project was initiated by
SCS as part of the commitment
to drive up European styrenics
recycling rates and follows the
promising results of an evaluation study in which SCS, engaged Agilyx to perform tests
with samples of post-consumer
PS food packaging waste. Agilyx evaluated the composition
of the waste feedstock and successfully recycled it back into
its original liquid monomer.
Another project involves a
collaboration with a Belgian recycler, who has developed a depolymerization process in which

polyolefins are broken down into
naphtha and wax, while polystyrene waste is depolymerized into
styrene monomers.

Fundamental focus
Critical to the success of all
these initiatives, however, is
the need for the basics to be in
place and functional.
"We need a fundamental focus on each step: collection,
sorting and recycling," Renvoise urged. "In many countries, we see the recycling
goals outpacing the waste
collection. In France, for example, the blue bin or yellow
bin scheme currently applies
in only 40% of the country.
This will reach 100% by 2022,
so that curbside collection of
waste plastic is available to
everyone," he said.
Recyclers too need to rethink
their sorting procedures. "PET,
LDPE, PP - these materials are
all well sorted at the sorting centres. PS is not that well sorted,
which means that efforts are
required on the part of the PS
suppliers to convince them that
this material is worth sorting,"
Renvoise noted.
"We are taking a long-term
commitment with them, to
demonstrate the investment is
worthwhile."
Polystyrene is eminently recyclable and should not end up being incinerated. It is a message

that Trinseo,
together with
SCS, is striving
to get across
to the industry. But what
about
ABS,
one of the other mainstays
Julien Renvoise
of the plastics
industry?
"Chemical recycling is far
less advanced," said Renvoise.
"There is a European project
which is investigating this, but it
is a more challenging material.
We will get there, of course, but
not yet."
PS, on the other hand, with its
uniquely simple chemistry is far
more easily depolymerized. "Also
compared to polyolefins," said
Renvoise.
"Depolymerisation
occurs at relatively low temperatures, which means that less energy is needed. It is easy to purefy and easy to process. It has a
positive carbon footprint. And it
has a low migration coefficient,
which means that contaminants
do not easily migrate in or out.
Whichever approach we use whether we transform PS waste
into fuel, from which we derive
the monomer to make the full
range of PS polymers, or convert
the PS waste through depolymerization into styrene monomers,
and then polymerise this into PS,
it remains one of the best materials for chemical recycling."

Consumers are a
driving force
The growing awareness of
consumers is the main force
behind the push for more recycling, thinks Renvoise. This
increased consumer awareness is also felt by the public
authorities, which has led to a
broad range of new goals, rules
and regulations on the national
and European level regarding
recycling and circularity.
"What we need is a scientific,
rather than an emotional approach," he declared. "As a value
chain, we need to collaborate in
order to achieve the goals we
have set. And we need to communicate better. Obviously as
an industry, we have a credibility issue. But we consider that to
be simply another challenge we
must seek to overcome."
April 2020

Sustainable Plastics - April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sustainable Plastics - April 2020