Despite, the global demand for recycled plastics, particularly for food and beverage packaging, supply of high-quality food grade recycled polymer material is limited.
To help connect with suppliers, ICIS has launched ‘Recycling Supply Tracker – Chemical’, the world’s only interactive database which provides FMCGs, chemical producers, large converters and retailers with an in-depth view of the emerging chemical recycling market.
Many industry players have public sustainability targets and need to understand capacities in the market to ensure they can source the necessary materials. As of 2021, the global installed capacity for chemical recycling is under 2.5m tonnes, including both commercial and pre-commercial facilities with Asia Pacific and North America as the leading regions.
The new database has up-to-date data including installed capacity, output volume, process, and feedstock, as well as details about the licensor and investors. It also provides updates on projects as they happen to help the industry understand the pace of growth in this sector. Less than 30% of projects are currently operating at commercial scale, but over half of the plants identified are expected to start-up in the next three years.
Chemical recycling processes can also be used to revert plastic waste back to an earlier molecular state. The database has identified that, in terms of capacity, only around 20% of the global recyclers currently produce polymers as an output of their chemical recycling facilities.
ICIS spokesperson Louise Boddy said, “Plastic waste is one of the biggest issues facing society and the investment now going into the development of new technologies to deal with plastic waste could be a game changer in the prevention of environmental leakage of used plastic.
“Efforts to bring more complex technology and greater scale to this industry are accelerating fast and ICIS is detailing these developments with its new supply tracker, helping to foster partnerships and investments that improve circularity and prevent waste.”
Access the database at icis.com/explore/services/recycling-supply-tracker