Pennzoil seeks wider recycling involvement

The Pennzoil brand of global petrochemical firm Shell says it is working with the Bradenton, Florida-based National Lubricant Container Recycling Coalition (NLCRC) to use recycled-content plastic in its oil and lubricants packaging.

Houston-based Shell Lubricants says it is replacing the nylon component in its Ecobox bladder bag, which it calls nonrecyclable, with EVOH (ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer), which it says is a recyclable material. Shell Lubricants says it also is exploring process technologies “that transform postuse plastic into useful liquids that could be used as a source of energy, as chemicals or as new products.”

Shell says it now is using a liquid feedstock made from plastic scrap in its chemical plant in Norco, Louisiana, to make “a range of chemicals that are the raw materials for everyday items.” The liquid, supplied by Atlanta-based Nexus Circular, is made from plastic scrap via a pyrolysis process.

Pennzoil and the NLCRC describe pyrolysis as “a chemical recycling process of heating plastic waste without oxygen such that it breaks down the longer chain polymers into shorter chain materials. These products can then be further processed into chemicals feedstocks or fuels.”

The industry-led NLCRC coalition was established in 2021 by lubricant and associated plastic packaging manufacturers focused on creating programs for postconsumer plastic recovery and recycling of plastic lubricant containers.