Austrian polyolefins group Borealis (Vienna; www.borealisgroup.com) has reached an agreement with Belgian recycler Renasci Oostende Recycling (Ostend; www.renasci.be) to acquire chemically recycled feedstock from Renasci’s centre in Belgium. A majority of the waste feedstock processed at there is derived from dried household refuse, with the remainder coming from industrial waste.

Borealis is expected to receive 20,000 t/y of chemically recycled feedstock from Renasci, which will be processed in Austrian group’s steam crackers at its production site in Porvoo / Finland, to manufacture “Borcycle C” circular polyolefins and circular base chemicals. As part of the “EverMinds” programme, Borealis has been developing technologies and products to support the transition from linear to circular economy, including its chemically recycled Borcycle C material group (see Plasteurope.com of 13.05.2021). The company is also considering the construction of a plant for chemical recycling of post-consumer plastics waste at its Swedish site in Stenungsund (see Plasteurope.com of 28.04.2021).

According to Martijn van Koten, Borealis’ executive VP of Base Chemicals and Operations, the agreement with Renasci complements its “ReOil” chemical recycling project, part of the company’s collaboration with oil and gas company OMV (Vienna; www.omv.com), which owns 75% of Borealis, with the remaining 25% held by investment firm Mubadala (Abu Dhabi / United Arab Emirates; www.mubadala.com). ReOil’s pilot plant in Austria recycles plastics waste into synthetic crude, processing up to 100 kg/hr (see Plasteurope.com of 15.05.2019). “We notice a strong increase in demand for chemically recycled products. Borealis and OMV aim to increase supply of these more circular base chemicals and polyolefins in order to help our customers deliver on their own sustainability targets.”

Lucrèce Foufopoulos, Borealis’ executive VP for Polyolefins, Innovation & Technology, says, “The cooperation with Renasci allows us to offer our customers and partners virgin-like polyolefins from chemically recycled post-consumer waste in material quantities effective this quarter.”