Chemical Recycling: The Challenge of Collection and Logistics

Originally published as part of an interview with Plásticos em Revista
Simone de Faria, Director for Latin America, Townsend Solutions

We would like to thank Plásticos em Revista for the opportunity to feature Simone de Faria, our Director for Latin America, and for inviting her to share her views on the challenges facing chemical recycling.

The following is an English translation of Simone’s contribution to the interview, originally published by Plásticos em Revista in Portuguese. Pesquisa de opinião - Plásticos em Revista

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“How can we make collection and logistics viable to return the hundreds of tonnes of discarded flexible packaging to recyclers?”

The short answer is that the investment is very high compared with the results obtained. However, it may become necessary in the future if regulatory restrictions require it. Before we reach that point in the management of plastic waste, however, we need to find collection and logistics solutions that allow post-consumer flexible packaging to be directed to chemical recycling plants.

We have made significant progress in mechanical recycling, and I believe we have practically addressed everything that can be recycled through this route. There are several initiatives to collect bottle caps, blow-moulded packaging, paint buckets, jerry cans and other rigid plastics. The collection, sorting and redirection of these materials to recycling industries is already a real and established practice.

What we need to solve is flexible plastic waste. Flexible packaging represents a large share of single-use plastics used in packaging — more than 2 million tonnes per year of PE and PP, used to package rice, beans, flour, sugar, salt and other essential products that make up the basic food basket of Brazilian consumers.

So how can we make the collection, and especially the logistics, viable to return the hundreds of tonnes of discarded flexible packaging to recyclers?

Consider the financial and environmental cost of transporting discarded flexible packaging — material that is lightweight but bulky.

Unlike mechanical recycling plants, which can be located across different regions of Brazil, the technical requirements of a chemical recycling plant do not allow such facilities to be built just anywhere.

Therefore, even if these plants are located close to major urban centres — the largest generators of waste and therefore of their potential feedstock — it will still be necessary to transport discarded material over long distances for processing.

And producing pyrolysis oil is not enough. Additional stages, including hydrotreatment and contaminant removal, are required before the material can be fed into petrochemical crackers and the circular loop can effectively be closed.

I don't see the economics working today.

In Colombia, this was possible because chemical recycling was developed by the petrochemical industry itself, generating value in terms of corporate image and positioning rather than financial returns.

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