Advanced Recycling and Feedstocks of the Future

We believe all recycling technologies are needed to reduce plastic waste and increase reuse of these valuable materials. CPChem is proud of its efforts in both traditional and advanced recycling, and the company remains dedicated to expanding circularity and developing circular products. CPChem is also exploring opportunities with bio-based feedstocks, and how lower carbon feedstocks may reduce our product carbon footprint.

Driving Development of Circular Products

The chemistry behind products like plastic packaging has evolved alongside consumers’ growing need for high-performance, quality goods. New infrastructure and technology are needed to repurpose difficult-to-recycle plastics in an economical and scalable manner.

What are “difficult-to-recycle” plastics?

Picture a bag of dog food. You might not be able to tell by holding it, but bags like these often contain several different layers of plastic, each serving a specific purpose. Some layers offer protection from moisture and contaminants while others provide strength, flexibility and serve as product labeling. While these special layers offer impressive levels of customization and protection, it is the same layers that make these products difficult to recycle through traditional means.

Advanced recycling is a step closer to a circular economy, where difficult-to-recycle plastics like plastic films and multi-layered food packaging can be used, recovered and recycled again and again. Polymers produced via advanced recycling are chemically identical to their fossil-based counterparts, allowing their use in highly regulated applications.

Pyrolysis is one example of an advanced recycling technology. Through the pyrolysis process, plastics that were once difficult-to-recycle can be converted to pyrolysis oil and used as feedstock to produce circular products like CPChem’s Marlex^® Anew™ Circular Polyethylene. CPChem hopes to accelerate the developing field of advanced recycling by increasing its support and investments in companies that produce pyrolysis oil. Enhancing production capacities of companies that supply pyrolysis oil also enhances CPChem’s ability to contribute to a circular economy for plastics.

1 Pyrolysis Oil Supplier 2 Circular Polyethylene Production 3 Marlex® Anew™ Circular Polyethylene 4 Recycling Center

1 Pyrolysis Oil Supplier

Using advanced recycling, polymers that make up previously difficult-to-recycle items can be saved and reused by “unzipping” them into a valuable liquid called pyrolysis oil. CPChem works with several suppliers of pyrolysis oil who manage this critical part of the advanced recycling process.

2 Circular Polyethylene Production

Pyrolysis oil contains recycled, highly valuable chemical building blocks that CPChem can use as a feedstock to produce Marlex® Anew™ Circular Polyethylene.

3 Marlex® Anew™ Circular Polyethylene

Made with waste plastics, our fully circular polyethylene can be used in many products we use every day, and it is well-suited for highly regulated industries such as those with food and medical applications.

4 Recycling Center

With advanced recycling and proper infrastructure, products that were once difficult-to-recycle can be collected and reprocessed into pyrolysis oil, starting these materials on their next circular journey, again and again.

Made using advanced recycling technology and certified through the ISCC PLUS process, Marlex^® Anew™ Circular Polyethylene is a cutting-edge product that embodies our commitment to helping the world find sustainable solutions and eliminate plastic waste in the environment. By 2030, we aspire to reach an annual production volume of one billion pounds of Marlex^® Anew™ Circular Polyethylene. In only two years since becoming commercially available, sales of our first circular product have experienced significant growth, indicating strong demand for high quality circular products as we work toward our 2030 target.

Our Journey to 1 Billion