Total and Plastic Energy have unveiled a strategic partnership to build France’s first chemical recycling plant, marking a major step in transforming hard-to-recycle plastics into high-quality materials. Total will hold 60% of the venture, with Plastic Energy taking 40%.

 

The plant, capable of processing 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year, will be located on Total’s new platform zéro crude in Grandpuits, France, and is expected to go online in early 2023.

 

“This strategic partnership combined with the construction of the first chemical recycling plant in France is an important step in the development of the chemical recycling of plastic waste. It will contribute to achieve our goal of producing 30% of polymers from recycled materials by 2030,” said Valérie Goff, Senior Vice President Polymers in Total’s Refining & Chemicals business segment.

 

Carlos Monreal, founder and CEO of Plastic Energy, added: “The collaboration with Total will help contribute to the emergence of an innovative new industrial sector for recycling, meeting both the rising demand for high-quality recycled materials, and the need for real circularity in plastics.”

 

In addition, Total has agreed to purchase a portion of the pyrolysis oils (TACOIL) produced in Plastic Energy’s Spanish plants from 2020. The TACOIL has already been successfully processed at Total’s Antwerp petrochemical platform, producing polymers identical to virgin materials—suitable even for food contact applications.

 

This partnership signals a significant push toward a circular plastics economy in France, leveraging chemical recycling to divert plastic waste from incineration and turn it into high-value products.