Multinational oil company Shell and German waste management firm Prezero want to work together on chemical recycling of plastics. The two companies announced in mid-July that they had signed a cooperation agreement with the aim of developing "a sustainable chemical recycling solution along the value chain for currently hard-to-recycle plastic streams”. The first joint initiative is currently being developed in the Netherlands, according to the press release.
As part of this cooperation, Prezero, a subsidiary of the Schwarz Group, which also owns the supermarkt chain Lidl, will contribute its experience in feedstock collection, sorting and pre-treatment "to develop new solutions for selecting and converting plastic waste into plastic recyclates”. For its part, Shell will develop, scale and deploy technologies to establish a process to transform plastic waste into chemicals that can be used to produce new plastics, according to the press release.
"Many European countries are significantly increasing their recycling targets for plastic,” said Sven Nuener, head of business development for Prezero International. "To work towards this goal, we not only need to increase the capacity of our recycling facilities but also diversify the types of plastic waste we can process. Our new project ensures broader possibilities for recycling as we work with material that would otherwise remain as waste,” he added.
Marco Richrath, Shell’s Senior Vice President Chemicals and Products Europe, commented: "Proper waste sorting and pre-treatment is essential to make chemical recycling a success. I am therefore very happy Shell is going to further develop its collaboration with PreZero.” He added: "With this cooperation agreement, we are bringing parties in the value chain together to make progress.”
In addition to the chemical recycling projects, Prezero and Shell want to explore "other cross-business connections in areas such as low-carbon fuels and renewable energy generation,” according to the press release.
