Advanced Recycling Booming Past Mechanical Recycling and Enriching Circular Economy
There is high traction in the circular economy thanks to the growth of smart recycling technologies in advanced recycling that are complementing mechanical recycling. It also recycle hither to untouched plastic waste amazingly leveraging rapid strides in advanced recycling.
This is in line with the latest trend of industries moving away from fossil fuels and embracing sustainability. As a result, many consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies have committed selling goods that have the least impact on the environment.
This is expanding the demand for circular polymers. However, recycling capacity is not keeping up with rising demand. It is in this vacuum that advanced recycling is stepping in with a viable solution.
Thanks to recent technological developments, the shortcomings of mechanical recycling are being overcome. Advanced recycling is trying to overcome the lag of mechanical recycling in terms of quality, speed, and efficiency.
The problem with mechanical recycling is that it is effective only when the waste is in good condition. It must be made into quality waste with clean sorting.
Mechanical recycling has considerable dressing up of the waste n terms of washing, shredding, and pelletizing. Still, structural challenges remain, including the limited feedstock and its purity for use in end-market applications.
In contrast, advanced recycling works on high-end chemical reactions, with the route moving quickly from plastic waste to ready-to-use plastic.
Advanced recycled feedstock has overcome those challenges with its expanded range of plastics that are made recyclable. It has value-added technologies that ensure plastic production with tailored molecular weight distributions and comonomers for high-value applications.
In terms of outlook, the demand for recycled polymers is growing because of increased consumer awareness, CPG pledges, and policy regulations.
One pioneering company in advanced recycling has been Nexus Circular. It is led by Jodie Morgan, winner of the 2023 ICIS Emerging Leader Award.
The Georgia-based Nexus Circular utilizes proprietary pyrolysis technology and many energy-efficient processes to convert landfill-bound plastics, including films, into high-quality pyrolysis oil.
Nexus’ advanced recycling process produces highly complex high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density PE (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) waste plastics.
The company is leading the advanced recycling industry with a positive footprint, addressing the need for used plastics in the market with an environment-friendly policy.
Its growth is evident from the long-term contracts it has made for the supply of pyrolysis oil feedstock to major polymers to produce circular, virgin-quality plastics.
How advanced recycling can progress with innovative technology has been demonstrated with its ability to process hard-to-recycle plastic waste, including film waste. Now it is scaling up capacity. The feed stock is of high quality and can be used by all petrochemical assets without post-treatment or extra upgrading.