On Thursday, a sustainable plastics technology innovator Loop Industries, and provider of environmental services SUEZ announced Europe’s first Infinite Loop recycling facility.
The final site selection and engineering are targeted to be completed by mid-2021 and the commissioning of the facility is currently projected in 2023.
The Infinite Loop™ facility would combine patented and proprietary low-energy technology that enables waste plastic to be recycled an infinite number of times, with no degradation in quality and SUEZ’s expertise.
It would be the world’s biggest polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling facility with a production target of approximately 4.2 billion food grade beverage bottles made of 100% recycled and infinitely recyclable PET plastic annually.
The facility is set to save 180,000 tons of CO2 each year compared with virgin PET production from a traditional petrochemical process.
Its position in Europe would be effective since the European governments are imposing new regulations on single-use plastics and set minimum recycled content laws for packaging. Ultimately, there is a critical need for a sustainable solution that can drastically decrease the environmental impact of plastic packaging for consumer brands.
Each year, Europe consumes approximately 5.5 million tons of PET plastic and less than 7% makes its way back into bottles.
