Planned Facility to Produce Mechanically Recycled Polystyrene for Food Packaging

German waste management company EGN, Norwegian equipment supplier Tomra, and the British chemical company INEOS announced plans to collaborate on a facility to recycle polystyrene for food packaging applications. The facility, which will be built by EGN at a site in Krefield, Germany, is expected to have the capacity to process 40,000 tons of post-consumer PS annually.

Tomra will contribute sorting technology and feedstock, EGN will manage sorting and washing operations, and INEOS Styrolution will provide the purification process. INEOS has previously announced its success with meeting food safety requirements for recycled polystyrene.

Tomra Feedstock will collect post-consumer polystyrene waste from disposed food packaging and deliver it to the new site, which is expected to be operational in 2025.

According to Pierre Vincent, managing director at EGN, the dairy industry will especially benefit from the creation of a circular economy for polystyrene.

“This is an exciting step forward for our industry. Our three companies bring complementary expertise to this project, and because of this unique collaboration, we will be able to provide customers high-performing circular polystyrene produced at a significantly lower carbon footprint,” said Steve Harrington, CEO at INEOS Styrolution.