Eastman’s molecular recycling project to receive US$375M investment from US government
Eastman’s second US molecular recycling project was selected by the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin award negotiations for up to US$375 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding as part of the Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP).
This announcement led to Eastman’s intention to build its second US molecular recycling facility at its location in Longview, Texas.
Eastman was selected by the US Department of Energy to receive investment for its molecular recycling facility in Longview, Texas.
Eastman selected the Longview site due to favorable factors including existing infrastructure and operations, favorable energy supply and footprint, and access to western and central US feedstock pools. It also provides enough space for onsite renewable energy.
The upcoming investment will include operations that will prepare mixed plastic waste for processing, Eastman’s next-generation molecular recycling unit to depolymerize waste, and a polymer facility to create virgin-quality materials for packaging and textiles.
The new molecular recycling facility is expected to have the capacity to recycle approximately 110,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste.
Proven polyester renewal technology
Eastman’s technology allows to break down hard-to-recycle plastic waste into its molecular building blocks and then reassembled to become virgin-quality material, without compromising performance.
With this technology, Eastman can transform waste plastic into virgin quality food contact polyesters with lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional methods, enabling potentially infinite use of materials in a material-to-material high-yield loop.
In addition to this newly announced facility in Texas, Eastman has recently completed its first molecular recycling facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, and plans to invest in another location in France.
