Paprec works with TotalEnergies on chemical recycling

Global petrochemical firm TotalEnergies and Paris-based recycling company Paprec say they have signed a long-term commercial agreement to “develop a French value chain for advanced recycling of plastic film [scrap].”

The agreement has been designed to help TotalEnergies secure the supply of what it calls an advanced plastic recycling plant in Grandpuits, France. TotalEnergies has been working with United Kingdom-based Plastic Energy to build chemical recycling plants in different parts of the world. 

Following the terms of this agreement, Citeo, an organization involved in end-of-life household packaging in France, will provide “a stream of flexible plastic waste sorted from post-consumer packaging,” the two companies say.

Those materials will be delivered to the Paprec Plastiques 80 plant in Amiens, France, where a custom sorting and preparation line will be built. TotalEnergies will use this French-origin scrap in its chemical recycling plant at the Grandpuits location and will produce recycled plastics that it says have the same properties as food-grade virgin plastics.

The Grandpuits plant built by TotalEnergies (60 percent owner) and Plastic Energy (40 percent) will be able to process 15,000 tons of scrap per year and is scheduled to be operational in 2024, the companies say.

“This long-term agreement is a major milestone for our advanced recycling plant at Grandpuits, as it guarantees a supply of waste of French origin,” says Valérie Goff, a senior vice president with TotalEnergies. “It is a tangible example of TotalEnergies’ commitment to developing a circular economy for plastics and fully contributes to our ambition of producing 30 percent circular polymers by 2030.”

Sébastien Petithuguenin, CEO of Paprec Plastiques, says, “Our job is to provide our customers and partners with circular packaging that makes it possible to return material to its original use and achieve carbon savings. We are taking an aggressive, innovative approach to monolayer resins such as PET [polyethylene terephthalate], HDPE [high-density polyethylene] and PVC [polyvinyl chloride]. This innovation with TotalEnergies supplements mechanical, or ‘low carbon’ recycling, which cannot offer the same circularity for plastic that’s not as eco-designed or that’s too soiled. Supporting and developing French industrial excellence is one of our missions.”