TotalEnergies partners with Plastic Omnium

French company TotalEnergies has signed a strategic partnership agreement with fellow French company Plastic Omnium to design and develop new plastic materials made from recycled polypropylene for use in the automotive industry.

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity.

Plastic Omnium designs and produces body systems for vehicles as well as systems for emission reduction and energy storage.

The companies say they will combine their innovation and engineering skills to design new recycled materials that offer enhanced performance and are better for the environment while also providing deliverable responses to the challenges raised by end-of-life plastics. These new materials, containing from 20 percent to 100 percent recycled content sourced from industrial and domestic material streams, have a CO2 impact that is as much as six times lower than virgin materials, the companies say.

Using plastics in automotive bodywork can help to cut the automotive industry's carbon emissions.

Valérie Goff, senior vice president, Polymers, at TotalEnergies, says, "This partnership with Plastic Omnium is a great example of collaboration and innovation to develop ever-higher and environmentally friendly recycled plastic materials that help our OEM (original equipment manufacturer) and vehicle manufacturer customers to reduce their carbon footprints. This project will also contribute to addressing the challenge of the circular economy and to our ambition of producing 30 percent recycled and renewable polymers by 2030."

"Recycling plastic materials is a challenge to us as manufacturers and a vital issue for our planet,” says Stéphane Noël, president and CEO of Plastic Omnium Intelligent Exterior Systems. “This exciting partnership paves the way to providing responses that are better integrated and more environmentally friendly, reflecting our customers' and suppliers' carbon neutrality goals. This is absolutely central to a strategic partnership that seeks to support the far-reaching transformation the industry is currently undergoing."