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Sabic (U.S. office in Houston) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UK-based Plastic Energy, a provider of chemical plastics recycling, for the supply of feedstock to support Sabic’s petrochemical operations in Europe. Sabic and Plastic Energy intend to build a first commercial plant in the Netherlands to refine and upgrade a valuable feedstock, known as Tacoil, a patented Plastic Energy product, which will be produced from the recycling of low quality, mixed plastic waste otherwise destined for incineration or landfill. The plant is anticipated to enter commercial production in 2021.

“Sustainability is a core value at Sabic and the circular economy is a cornerstone of our strategy as evidenced by this unique agreement,” said Frank Kuijpers, general manager for Corporate Sustainability for Sabic. “Sabic is proud to be the first petrochemical company to implement a project for the chemical recycling of challenging plastic waste into feedstock for steam crackers. This exciting project is testament to our commitment to scale up advanced chemical recycling processes of plastics back to the original polymer.”

Plastic Energy has successfully commercialized a patented thermochemical conversion technology to convert a wide range of end-of-life, dirty and contaminated plastics, hardly recyclable for conventional processes, into usable feedstock. Plastics are melted in an oxygen free environment and then broken down into synthetic oils at which point the oils need to be refined and upgraded as feedstock for traditional petrochemical uses.