Eastman enters into partnership with Procter & Gamble

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble (P&G) has entered into an agreement with Eastman, headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, to use Eastman Renew materials in select products and packaging. The move supports both companies’ goals to reduce the use of virgin plastic from fossil resources. Procter & Gamble has set a goal for 100 percent of its consumer packaging to be recyclable or reusable by 2030.

Lee Ellen Dreschler, senior vice president of research and development at Procter & Gamble, adds that the company is taking a “thoughtful approach” to addressing collection, processing, revitalization and reuse of materials. She says, “That’s why we selected Eastman’s molecular recycling technologies, which enable former waste to be transformed into useful products.”

Additionally, the companies will collaborate on advocacy initiatives aimed at reducing reliance on virgin plastic to better enable a circular economy. Scott Ballard, president of plastics and circular at Eastman, says Procter & Gamble and Eastman are members of many organizations that are working to create a circular economy. “By collaborating more closely with Procter & Gamble, we’re showing the world what’s possible in order to advance the adoption of solutions like material-to-material molecular recycling, and we are pushing to accelerate the investment in infrastructure needed to make circularity possible.”

According to a news release from Eastman, the company’s Eastman Renew materials are made through Eastman’s molecular recycling technologies that use plastic scrap. The advanced recycling technologies complement traditional recycling, expanding the types and amounts of plastics that can be recycled.

P&G and Eastman also plan to collaborate on initiatives addressing the infrastructure needed to increase plastic recycling rates.

“A lot of plastics other than clear beverage bottles aren’t collected and separated today because it makes no economic sense for a material recovery facility to do that if there is no use for them,” Ballard says. “Our molecular recycling facilities can use that plastic as raw material. We can create value from that waste and are willing to pay these facilities to separate things they currently have to send to landfill.”

Ballard adds that Eastman and Procter & Gamble will be working with specific facilities to change processes and behaviors so that more material is collected, sent to Eastman to be turned into new material and then sent to P&G and its consumers.

The companies say these efforts will complement the current recycling streams in the United States and enable additional recycling options for consumers. The two companies will work to expand the collection of hard-to-recycle plastics. The companies say the expanded recycling streams will be used to create new materials through Eastman’s molecular recycling technologies.

“Eastman is excited to have Procter & Gamble as a partner to put molecular recycling into practice,” Ballard adds. “Together, we can create value from waste and show the world what's possible through innovation. The value created will help drive the critical changes in our recycling infrastructure that are necessary to solve the plastic waste crisis.”

Eastman Renew materials are now available globally at scale. P&G plans to integrate Eastman Renew materials into select product packaging later this year.

Eastman is also constructing a large plastic-to-plastic recycling facility in Kingsport, which is expected to be completed in 2022. The molecular recycling facility will consume more than 200 million pounds per year of plastic scrap to make Eastman Renew materials.