ExxonMobil Starts Operations at Large-Scale Advanced Recycling Facility
- Baytown facility can process more than 80 million pounds per year of plastic waste
- Certified circular products meet demand for more sustainable materials, diverting plastic waste from landfills
- Planning additional global capacity to recycle 1 billion pounds annually of used plastics by year-end 2026
IRVING, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ExxonMobil today announced successful startup of one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America. The facility at the company’s integrated manufacturing complex in Baytown, Texas, uses proprietary technology to break down hard-to-recycle plastics and transform them into raw materials for new products. It is capable of processing more than 80 million pounds of plastic waste per year, supporting a circular economy for post-use plastics and helping divert plastic waste currently sent to landfills.
“We’ve proven our proprietary advanced recycling technology at Baytown, and now we’re leveraging our scale and integration to increase production of certified circular plastics to meet growing demand,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company. “There is substantial demand for recycled plastics, and advanced recycling can play an important role by breaking down plastics that could not be recycled in traditional, mechanical methods. We are collaborating with government, industry and communities to scale up the collection and sorting of plastic waste that will improve recycling rates and help our customers around the world meet their sustainability goals.”
Since the start of pilot operations at Baytown last year, ExxonMobil has recycled nearly 15 million pounds of plastic waste. The proprietary ExxtendTM technology enables the breakdown of plastic waste that would previously be destined for landfills – from synthetic athletic fields to bubble wrap and motor oil bottles.
The company helped form Cyclyx International LLC, a joint venture created to collect and sort large volumes of plastic waste and is investing in a first-of-its-kind plastic waste processing facility in Houston to help supply ExxonMobil’s Baytown advanced recycling facility.
To accelerate advanced recycling, ExxonMobil is a founding member of the Houston Recycling Collaboration, which brings government and industry together to increase access to recycling programs and expand infrastructure for mechanical and advanced recycling technologies.
ExxonMobil plans to build advanced recycling facilities at many of its other manufacturing sites around the world, which would give it the capacity to process up to 1 billion pounds of plastic waste annually by year-end 2026. The company is assessing facilities in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Beaumont, Texas; and Joliet, Illinois; as well as at sites in Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore and Canada.
ExxonMobil is also collaborating with third parties to assess the potential for large-scale implementation of advanced recycling technologies and opportunities to support improvements to plastic waste collection and sorting in Malaysia and Indonesia.
ExxonMobil has commercial contracts to sell certified circular plastics to customers around the world for use in food-safe plastic packaging, including collaborations with Sealed Air and Ahold Delhaize USA, Berry Global, and Amcor.
Advanced recycling is a proven technology that can help accelerate a circular economy and address the challenge of plastic waste. With effective government policies in place to modernize the recycling system and improve waste collection, more plastic materials can be collected, sorted and recycled, especially plastics that aren’t easily recycled today.
About ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil, one of the largest publicly traded international energy and petrochemical companies, creates solutions that improve quality of life and meet society’s evolving needs.
The corporation’s primary businesses – Upstream, Product Solutions and Low Carbon Solutions – provide products that enable modern life, including energy, chemicals, lubricants, and lower-emissions technologies. ExxonMobil holds an industry-leading portfolio of resources, and is one of the largest integrated fuels, lubricants and chemical companies in the world.
In 2021, ExxonMobil announced Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emission-reduction plans for 2030 for operated assets, compared to 2016 levels. The plans are to achieve a 20-30% reduction in corporate-wide greenhouse gas intensity; a 40-50% reduction in greenhouse gas intensity of upstream operations; a 70-80% reduction in corporate-wide methane intensity; and a 60-70% reduction in corporate-wide flaring intensity.
With advancements in technology and the support of clear and consistent government policies, ExxonMobil aims to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions from its operated assets by 2050. To learn more, visit exxonmobil.com, the Energy Factor, and ExxonMobil’s Advancing Climate Solutions.
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Cautionary Statement
Statements of future events, investments, conditions, strategic and operating plans and objectives, the development of technologies, and other statements of future ambitions in this release are forward-looking statements.
Actual future results, including business and project plans, operating performance, partner participation, timing, capacities, and costs could differ materially due to a number of factors. These include the ability to execute operational objectives on a timely and successful basis; timely completion of construction projects; unforeseen technical or operational difficulties; unplanned maintenance; global or regional changes in the supply and demand for post-use plastics; unexpected technological developments; the ability to scale different technologies on a cost-competitive basis; the outcome of future commercial negotiations; actions of competitors and commercial counterparties; government policies; and other market factors.
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