Eastman seeking to develop French molecular recycling facility

In France, Eastman has entered an exclusive negotiation with Port-Jérôme-sur-Seine as the preferred location of the molecular recycling facility it plans to build in France. This is an important step toward a significant milestone in the company’s plan to invest up to $1 billion and build the world’s largest material-to-material molecular recycling plant in France — a facility that will recycle approximately 160,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle polyester waste annually. 

Eastman’s proven polyester renewal technology (PRT) is complementary to mechanical recycling and provides true circularity for hard-to-recycle plastic waste that remains in a linear economy today. This material, like colored or degraded PET or textiles, is typically incinerated because it either cannot be mechanically recycled or must be downcycled.  

PRT creates potentially infinite value from materials by keeping them in production life cycle after life cycle. With the technology’s highly efficient polyester yield of 93% and the renewable energy sources available in Normandy, Eastman can transform waste plastic into first-quality polyesters with greenhouse gas emissions up to 80% less than traditional methods.