UK-headed waste plastic recovery technology developer Pyroplast Energy Ltd, currently trading as Clean Planet Energy (CPE), has announced that its North American division, Clean Planet Energy USA, has secured a long-term supply agreement with the world’s largest recycler of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) rigid plastic, KW Plastics.
The agreement will provide plastic scrap to Clean Planet’s new ecoPlant, to be built in Alabama (AL), and will mean up to 20 000 tonnes of plastic residue generated at the current KW Plastics facility in Troy, AL will be turned into reusable circular products in a new ecoPlant to be built by Clean Plant Energy, rather than being sent to landfill.
The circular products produced at a Clean Planet ecoPlant can either be circular petrochemical feedstocks, which are used to generate new plastics, or ultra-low sulphur fuels(used to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if used as a replacement for fossil fuels.
Clean Planet’s vision for North America is to integrate our advanced ecoPlant technology into industries that can support the removal of plastics entering landfill across the USA, said David Nazha, CEO of Clean Planet Energy’s North American division.
In November 2021, Clean Planet Energy announced the formation of a US-based joint venture with Fortress Transportation and Infrastructure (FTAI) to develop Clean Planet Energy USA ecoPlants across key markets in North America.
Starting in New Jersey (NJ), the joint venture sought to advance multiple additional projects with agreements in place for plastic supply in Texas (TX), Florida (FL), the Dominican Republic, and other key North American markets.
Utilize non-recyclable residual plastic
Headquartered in Troy, Alabama (AL), KW Plastics accepts rigid plastics from across the country and recycles them into a wide range of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) recycled resins for multiple industries including personal care, automotive, agriculture, construction, and flexible packaging applications.
The KW Plastics’ facilities can process in excess of 500 million pounds (250 000 tonnes) of rigid plastic per annum.
Despite the advanced nature of KW Plastic’s facilities, not all of the rigid plastic received can be mechanically processed into recycled materials, meaning a proportion of the material must be landfilled.
Integrating Clean Planet Energy’s ecoPlant facility downstream of the KW process adds green-catalytic and hydrogen processing capabilities, enabling almost all material received into the KW facility from US households to now be recycled.
It is believed that locating Clean Planet Energy’s Alabama facility in proximity to KW Plastics, will create a highly efficient, low landfill supply chain for plastic recycling, and significantly stop plastics from entering landfill,
Since 1981, KW has been a pioneer in the revolution of the plastics recycling industry. We have developed processes to handle a wide range of rigid plastics allowing us to work with MRF operators to greatly increase the amount of HDPE and PP containers removed from curb sidestream. Working with Clean Planet Energy at our headquarters in Troy, Alabama is an exciting way to continue this journey, now knowing the even harder-to-reach plastics can be put back into use, said Scott Saunders, General Manager of KW Plastics.
Clean Planet Energy, in collaboration with KW Plastics, is currently pushing forward the planning requirements to begin construction of Clean Planet’s first ecoPlant in Alabama.
The team at KW Plastics share our vision of the reduction of plastics entering landfill, and working with the world’s largest plastics recycler is a significant step in this journey. We are very excited about the possibilities for both companies, and the continued protection of the environment achieved by removing waste plastics ended David Nazha.
