Aircraft parts and chemicals manufacturer Honeywell International has announced that it has found a new way to turn low-grade plastic waste into the oil with quality that can be fed into a refinery. The firm has joined forces with Spanish infrastructure company Sacyr SA to scale up the process called the Upcycle Process Technology.
The process will be done in a facility that can turn 30,000 metric tons of mixed plastic trash into oil per year. Production is expected to start in 2023. As global plastic waste continues to grow, industry players are seeking ways to make recycling viable and profitable to curb environmental hazards.
Recycling 90 percent of global plastic waste
While it is yet to be seen if the process works, it seems like a potential solution to a growing issue. Honeywell has been pretty experienced when it comes to purifying plastic waste and claims its process “has the potential to increase the amount of global plastic waste that can be recycled to 90 percent,” according to a press release.
That’s a huge jump, considering that only about 2% of plastic waste is currently turned back into reusable materials, as per Bloomberg.
Saving oceans from pollution
Roughly half is either incinerated or dumped in landfills, and around 30% lands in the ocean or other water bodies. Dependence on plastic materials is far from over. “Plastics play an important role in our society, including expanding the shelf life of food and making vehicles lighter, which reduces their emissions,” Vimal Kapur, CEO of Honeywell performance materials and technologies, said in the release. “Unfortunately, only a fraction of plastics today can be successfully recycled.”
“By broadening the types of plastic that can be recycled, UpCycle will revolutionize the plastics economy and play a critical role in improving the sustainability of many of the products we use on a daily basis,” he added.
