Circular Economy Sabic, Plastic Energy Team Up with Siemer, Landbell for Treatment of Mixed Plastics

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Under the terms of the collaboration, Sabic and Plastic Energy’s advanced recycling unit will receive pre-sorted and treated plastic waste from Siemer’s sorting plant in Germany. The unit will convert the plastic waste into pyrolysis oil which will then be treated and used as alternative feedstock by Sabic to produce certified circular polymers.

Geleen/The Netherlands – In another significant contribution towards the development of a circular economy for plastics, Sabic and Plastic Energy have established a collaboration with Siemer and Landbell for sorting and pre-treatment of mixed and used post-consumer plastic to be processed in their advanced recycling unit in Geleen, The Netherlands which is in the final stages of construction.

In this collaboration, Sabic and partner Plastic Energy will receive pre-sorted and treated plastic waste supply from Siemer’s newly built sorting plant in Vechta, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Siemer plant is supplied by Landbell.

Innovative plant significantly increases sorting residues for recycling

Siemer’s unique processing plant in Vechta is a former sorting plant for light packaging that has been overhauled and redesigned for the pioneering purpose of recovering recyclable materials from previously non-recyclable or hard-to-recyclable post-consumer plastic waste. Following the overhaul, it now re-sorts the fraction of plastic packaging waste classified as low-grade using newly combined technologies and prepares it for advanced recycling.

The sorting plant, is the first of its kind that can separate dirt, foreign matter and impurities from the remaining plastic fractions and has an input capacity of 25,000 tonnes per year.

Once reprocessed, the plastic waste will be delivered to Sabic and Plastic Energy advanced recycling unit, where it will be converted into pyrolysis oil, called Tacoil, using Plastics Energy’s advanced recycling technology. The Tacoil will then be treated in a newly built Sabic hydrotreater plant, to be subsequently used as alternative feedstock by Sabic to produce their flagship certified circular polymers, part of the company’s Trucircle portfolio.

Collaboration driving the path to circularity

Advanced recycling is an essential and complementary solution to traditional recycling processes and can take typically hard to recycle types of plastic waste. Factors such as access to high quality volumes of used plastics are crucial for advanced recycling to be implemented globally.

Sabic, Plastic Energy, Siemer and Landbell are among the first players in the circular economy to bring together feedstock streams, technology and know-how to scale-up advanced recycling operations. In doing so, the collaboration is creating the conditions toward a more closed loop model for post-consumer plastic.

“We have created a unique collaboration from different points in the value chain,” says Rutger Bosch, Global Circular Economy Leader at Sabic. “We have demonstrated how to reinvent our business model by bringing together experienced operational partners that historically would not have worked together. Siemer convinced us with its quick action and rapid progress in the technical implementation. And Landbell secures the future expansion of our plant operations. With this new approach, we hope to show that closed loop projects have the potential to capture the value and bring back used plastic into new material streams.”

“Through the use of our advanced recycling technology, we are making great strides in building the circular economy in the Netherlands, and globally,” says Carlos Monreal, Founder and CEO of Plastic Energy. “This collaboration with Siemer and Landbell is important to the success of our joint recycling plant with Sabic in Geleen, providing optimal feedstock to be used in our recycling process.”

“By optimally combining our capabilities, we ensure progress in the resource-saving use of plastics,” says Manfred Bruns, Managing Director of A. Siemer – Entsorgungs. “We are on the way to one hundred percent recycling. Strategic collaborations like this one are necessary to drive this forward-looking development of the circular economy. As a one-hundred-year-old family business, we are proud to contribute a small but fundamental part to this modern process.”

Uwe Echteler, member of the board of Landbell and COO of the DACH region, focuses on offering customer-specific recycling options and optimizing the cycle for chemical re-cycling up to a closed product loop: “As a ‘first mover’, we are faced with the exciting task of finding the optimal composition of material streams for pyrolysis. We want to make a real contribution to resource conservation and with this project we can gain the necessary insights and offer initial product documentation.”

Both the planning and development of the processing plant in Vechta and the strategic linking of the players involved to create an economically attractive and resource-saving cycle were carried out by the operational consultancy Source One. In this loop, which is the precursor to a closed product loop, Source One was able to contribute its three core competences of consultancy, development and procurement to create added value for each individual company in the new strategic collaboration.

“We are very proud to have brought together the players involved and connected them through the development of a technological bridge,” says Kai Hoyer, Managing Director of Source One. “It was exciting to put a new technical concept on top of the conditions of an old sorting plant. The particular challenge was the short time frame in which we upgraded the existing plant. Now we look forward to further advancing the circular economy with similarly effective and sustainable solutions.”

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