What is advanced recycling?

Plastic is ubiquitous. It’s an essential ingredient in many products we use daily, from cars to clothing to medical devices. But what happens when we inevitably have to dispose of all that plastic?

The Problem

The U.S. generates more than 35 million tons of plastic waste every year. Currently, less than 10% of that waste is recycled by the consumer. Traditional, or “mechanical” recycling, is only able to recycle around 20% of all plastic waste generated annually. The rest is sent to landfills or incinerated, releasing harmful greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Reducing and reusing plastics are key solutions, but recycling must play a role to close the loop on a rising global demand.

Our Solution

Fortunately, there is a more efficient, less harmful recycling method being deployed for the first time on a widespread commercial scale that converts hard-to-recycle materials into fully usable materials to be recycled indefinitely: advanced recycling. Advanced recycling uses a process called pyrolysis to transform end-of-life plastic back into its original hydrocarbon form that the industry can reuse to produce new plastic.

Pyrolysis takes end-of-life plastic that would otherwise end up incinerated or in a landfill and turns it into feedstock for new plastic. Officially, the term pyrolysis is used to describe the process of heating an organic material without using oxygen. The absence of oxygen means that no incineration or combustion occurs, and emissions are kept to a minimum. At Freepoint’s advanced recycling facilities, pyrolysis is used to superheat plastic waste and return it to its original liquid, prime resin form so that it can be used to create new plastic.

Prime resins serve as the main feedstock, or “building blocks” of plastic production. While prime resins have traditionally been produced using fossil fuels, pyrolysis produces prime resins that are indistinguishable from the prime resins produced by fossil fuels. Therefore, plastic produced from chemically recycled feedstocks is identical to fossil-fuel-based plastic, and consumers receive the same finished product.

Because the resulting recycled product is the same as the original product, advanced recycling is truly a circular process. The current life cycle of plastic is designed to be linear, with landfills and incinerators being the ultimate destination for the vast majority of plastic waste. Advanced recycling aims to close this gap, and Freepoint Eco-Systems’ advanced recycling facilities are a key part of the solution to addressing plastic waste and establishing a circular economy.

While advanced recycling has been around for decades, the process is currently being commercialized worldwide due to its advantages over traditional recycling. At Freepoint’s facilities, 75-80% of the plastic waste input is recovered for reuse and the remainder is consumed in the advanced recycling process. As advanced recycling solutions gain momentum, Freepoint is leveraging more efficient technology that will allow more than 90% of plastic waste feedstock to be recovered to make new, recyclable products.

Freepoint Eco-Systems is currently constructing several advanced recycling facilities that are scheduled to begin operating in the coming years. Its first advanced recycling facility currently under construction in Hebron, Ohio is slated to begin operations this year. The facility will be among the largest advanced recycling operations in the world and will have the capacity to recycle about 90,000 tons of waste plastic per year into feedstock for new plastic.

While the world may consume an enormous amount of plastic, Freepoint is committed to ensuring that this plastic is recycled in an efficient, low-impact manner. Pyrolysis makes responsible plastic recycling possible.