Interzero and Eastman reach supply agreement for planned recycling facility in France

Interzero and Eastman  announced a long-term supply agreement for Eastman’s previously announced molecular recycling facility in Normandy, France. Interzero will provide up to 20,000 metric tonnes per year of hard-to-recycle PET household packaging waste that would otherwise be incinerated.

Interzero Plastics Recycling, as part of Interzero, has the largest sorting capacity in Europe and many years of experience. Headquartered in Germany, Interzero is a leading service provider of circular solutions in Europe and is strongly connected to its sister company ALBA Group Asia both led by Chairman and Shareholder, Dr. Axel Schweitzer.

Eastman’s planned molecular recycling facility in France will become the world’s largest material-to-material molecular recycling plant. Once complete, the facility will recycle approximately 160,000 tonnes of hard-to-recycle polyester waste annually. The project is expected to be operational in 2025.

Chemical recycling is a necessary complement to mechanical recycling to keep more raw materials in the loop. Both companies are committed to creating material circularity. Eastman’s facility in France will process colored and opaque PET waste that cannot be recycled mechanically to create clear and transparent rPET upon completion.

Eastman’s chemical recycling technology allows hard-to-recycle waste to be broken down into its molecular building blocks and then reassembled to become first-quality material without any compromise in performance. Eastman's polyester renewal technology enables the potentially infinite value of materials by keeping them in production, lifecycle after lifecycle. With the technology’s inherent efficiencies and the renewable energy sources available in France, materials can be produced with significantly less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional methods.