Due to concerns over the excessive stringency of the EU's plastic-related regulations, ExxonMobil has shelved its plans to build two chemical recycling plants in Antwerp, Belgium, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with a total investment of 100 million euros.
In an email reply to the media on September 18, Chris Walker, a regional spokesperson for ExxonMobil, stated: "These two projects are currently on hold until we have clarity on the specific requirements of the relevant regulations. Together, the two projects would be capable of processing 80,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually (approximately 40,000 tonnes per project)."
The suspension of ExxonMobil's chemical recycling plans has not come as a surprise to industry players.
Previously, the EU opened a public consultation on a new draft regulation concerning the calculation of recycled content via the mass balance approach. Mass balance refers to the accounting of all materials involved in the recycling process to ensure that the total mass of input materials equals the total mass of output materials, while taking into account any losses that may occur during recycling.
As early as August 19, ExxonMobil stated: "The mass balance requirements proposed by the European Commission threaten the viability of our chemical recycling projects in Europe." "Such strict mass balance rules could hinder the large-scale development of chemical recycling technologies and limit people's ability to access recyclable materials. This may lead the European Commission to establish exemption clauses for certain special applications (such as contact-sensitive products), thereby delaying the progress of plastic circular economy."
Prior to ExxonMobil's decision, other industry enterprises had also re-evaluated their plastic recycling strategies. For instance, Dow Inc. and Neste Oyj respectively abandoned their plans to build pyrolysis plants in Europe in August.
Furthermore, in early September, Neste stated that the EU's draft regulation on chemical recycling had threatened its plan to invest 111 million euros in upgrading the steam cracker at its refining and chemical base in Porvoo, Finland.
