LyondellBasell, whose American headquarters is in Houston, announced Thursday it has formed a partnership with AFA Nord to recycle post commercial flexible secondary packaging waste.
The joint venture company, LMF Nord GmbH, will create a mechanical recycling plant in Northern Germany to turn linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) waste into quality recycled plastic materials that can be used in flexible packaging. The joint company expects it will start production on the material in early 2025.
According to the company, secondary plastic packaging, like shrink film, is used to hold packed consumer goods together, but has been difficult to recycle into high-quality raw materials. The LMF GmbH joint venture would recycle that material while meeting the packaging sector’s requirements regarding quality and transparency.
“This Joint Venture will provide recycled LDPE and LLDPE materials and complements our existing CirculenRecover range of high-density polyethylene and polypropylene products,” Yvonne van der Laan, LyondellBasell’s executive vice president of Circular and Low Carbon Solutions, said. “It adds to our efforts in advanced recycling and delivers against our integrated hub strategy, where we invest upstream to provide feedstock from various plastic waste streams. With this efficient full suite of solutions we continue to be the preferred partner of our customers.”
Officials said the new recycling unit is expected to 26,000 tons of recycled LDPE and LLDPE per year, which will be marketing by LyondellBasell through its CirculenRecover family of products. AFA Nord’s sister company, TM Recycling GmbH, will provide the feedstock for the joint venture.
“We already operate Germany’s only agricultural film recycling plant for a number of years and have a broad experience in the production of recycled materials,” Andreas Mensing, managing director of AFA Nord said. “Together with LyondellBasell we can contribute to a circular economy and increase the availability of recycled solutions for flexible packaging applications.”