Gr3n has developed cPET, a revolutionary chemical process which allows to recycle all types of post-consumer PET products (e.g. bottles, food containers and polyester clothes) in a closed loop cycle, obtaining as output the very same pure monomers that currently feed the PET production cycle. The process is a clean, safe and profitable way to recycle PET/polyester plastic waste and enables to comply with the principles of the circular economy. It is then possible to produce the cPET in each urban area, which can directly feed the local need for the production of plastic products.
cPET provides the following substantial benefits all along the PET value chain:
•To large retailers: the availability of a 100% recycled PET is evoked by all major brands in their sustainability reports. Besides Corporate Social Responsibility, retailers are currently required to pay a national environmental contribution for each ton of plastic entered into the market. Currently, policy makers are working on regulations that reward companies which use recycled materials, by discounting the taxes based on percentage of recycled plastic. This would provide retailers with huge economic savings in the long term.
•To mechanical recyclers and municipalities: they have access to all types of waste plastics, and will have the possibility to increase the low value of post-consumer PET products as well as mechanical recyclers industrial scraps (which represent around 30% of production). In fact, Gr3n allows treating coloured baled bottles, thus representing a unique alternative for mechanical recycling of these lower value waste, and transforming it into new feedstock for a new recycling model based on circular economy, thus greatly benefitting the whole regions that adopt the solution.
•To the environment: through our preliminary analysis, the Gr3n de-polymerization process is poised to mark a 38% of CO2/kg and 67% of MJ/kg reduction with respect to the environmental/energetic impact of current monomers’ production from oil companies, and to improve the logistics impact, as monomers are 5 times denser than baled bottles, reducing by 80% the needs for transportation. The real impact comes the 100% recycling of PET waste: we estimated that around 600 cPET plants would be able to recycle the PET waste produced worldwide every year, thus contributing to solve the dramatic plastic pollution problem.
During this project Gr3n aims to the demonstration of cPET technology in an industrial relevant scenario, validating the circular economy in a geographic area where the PET value chain is highly valued by the presence of both suppliers and costumers. The interaction with different stakeholders is helping the company to settle in the local production chain, and to validate both its technology and business objectives.
