Chemical company to build integrated plastic recycling site in Germany

Global chemical company LyondellBasell (LYB) has secured a location where it will build an integrated plastic recycling hub south of an existing industrial park in Knapsack, Germany, signing a land lease agreement with YNCORIS GmbH & Co. KG. The hub will help LYB to meet its ambition to produce and market at least 2 million metric tons of recycled and renewable-based polymers annually by 2030.

The hub, to be developed in phases, will combine various advanced sorting and recycling operations, helping to address the plastic waste challenge and grow the circular economy, according to the company. The initial phase of the project will involve constructing an advanced sorting facility that will process mixed plastics to produce feedstock for mechanical and advanced recycling. LYB says the mixed plastic it will process is not recycled today and is most often sent to incineration for energy recovery.

RELATED: LyondellBasell progresses plans for advanced recycling plant in Germany

The integrated recycling hub will cover an area equivalent to 20 soccer fields. Its initial advanced sorting facility is expected to start operating in the first quarter of 2026.

"The industrial park in Knapsack is the ideal location for our integrated hub as is it close to our world-scale facilities in Wesseling and will allow us to develop additional technologies for the recycling of plastic waste," says Yvonne van der Laan, LYB executive vice president, circular and low-carbon solutions. "The integration of various technologies will allow us to build scale and offer our customers a wide range of products from recycled and renewable resources."

Interim Wesseling-Knapsack Site Manager Stephan Staender says, "The integrated recycling hub will also produce feedstock for the advanced recycling unit the company will build at its Wesseling site. The new hub will also provide opportunities for synergies with the company's mechanical recycling facility in Geleen, Netherlands, and the company's polypropylene compounding facility in Knapsack."

LYB has developed proprietary molecular, or chemical, recycling technology, known as MoReTec, to convert pretreated postuse plastic into feedstock for new plastic production.

"This move to our expansion site in the industrial park in Knapsack is a key building block in the transformation of the chemical industry in Germany to a circular economy," says Ralf Müller, CEO of YNCORIS, a leading industrial service provider with headquarters in Hürth, Germany.

Fellow YNCORIS Managing Director Christoph Kappenhagen adds, "Over the years, the site has undergone continuous development; the people here have never rested on their laurels but have always made a significant contribution to leading the site into the future with their innovative potential."