TotalEnergies Petrochemicals & Refining USA, the Houston, Texas-based subsidiary of French energy and petrochemicals giant TotalEnergies (Paris; www.totalenergies.com), has joined the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition as a funding partner. An initiative of US non-profit The Recycling Partnership (www.recyclingpartnership.org/polypropylene-coalition), the organisation supports communities in transforming underperforming recycling programmes, and it works with packaging producers to tackle circular economy challenges and with local governments to help develop recycling policies.

The declared goal of the coalition is to achieve the same high levels of recycling for PP in the US as that enjoyed by other plastics, in particular PET and HDPE. To this end, it awards grants to fund recycling facilities, targets consumer education efforts, and pushes for recycling infrastructure improvements.

The energy group said its collaboration with the non-profit will focus on increasing kerbside recycling access for PP to ensure the packaging material is widely recovered and reused in end-markets such as food and beverage packaging, consumer products and automotive parts.

TotalEnergies’ circularity goal is to increase the share of recycled and renewable polymers in its portfolio to 30% by 2030, said Paul Colonna, vice-president for polymers in America. In France, the group recently expanded capacity at its Normandy-based affiliate Synova to nearly 45,000 t/y of mechanically recycled PP (see Plasteurope.com of 07.10.2021).