No so long ago, plastic waste was all sent to the local dump or land-fill site. Today, an effort is made to valorise plastic waste by recycling it as plastic (showing that it can have several lives…) or incinerating it to produce heat energy (plastics always retain the heat value of the oil they are derived from).
In Europe, for every 50 million tons of plastic consumed each year, 10 million tons end up as land-fill and 9 million tons are valorised (a quarter of this is recycled and three quarters are incinerated to generate electricity). Some countries, such as Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, either recycle or incinerate (with energy recovery) practically all plastic waste, with very little going into land-fill.
Total Petrochemicals actively supports initiatives to valorise plastic waste – from both industrial and consumer sources – via partnerships with relevant associations. It encourages the setting up of both recycling systems as well as energy-recovery incineration and it contributes actively to the efforts made by professional associations like PlasticsEurope and the American Chemistry Council to improve management of end-of-life plastics.
Management of end-of-life plastics also benefits from development of new polymer grades that are more easily recyclable, which are the focus of current research by Total Petrochemicals.
