Page 33 - Plastics News August - 2023

create new, food-grade plastics. This He explained: “The facility is located first to put collection systems in place,
is something Greenback is setting up on a landfill. There is a material recov- to establish the feedstock stream
in cooperation with the petrochemi- ery facility - near the landfill, next to needed for recycling, and then bring-
cal industry’, he pointed out. The which Greenback’s recycling plant has ing the material recovery facilities
company is talking with players in that been installed. This effectively creates online that enable good quality bales
industry to ensure the pyrolysis oil a perfect chain: the collected waste of recycled recyclable material to be
Greenback produces, ‘makes it into materials are brought to the landfill, made available.
the cracker’, and how to handle the taken into the recovery facility and “Greenback’s technology is a com-
different pyrolysis oil fractions. separated into streams suitable for re- pelling solution because it's modular
“The quantities are still quite small,” cycling. The output is - as Philippe has and could be implemented anywhere.
he pointed out, “but once in the described - the different fractions of If we're organising a collection pro-
cracker, that content can be allocated pyrolysis oil that can be used, as well gramme, it is something that could
via the mass balance method to the as the aluminium that can then be sold therefore easily be brought on site
plastics created.” In the future, it may on.” and installed downstream of the col-
be possible to produce enough pyrol- The role of the AEPW lection system that we have fostered
ysis oil for a dedicated cracker in or- As a 501(c)(3) organisation, the Al- in a community,” he elaborated. “It
der to be able to make 100% recycled liance to End Plastic Waste is a non- can be fully manufactured off site,
content plastic, he said. Nor is refining profit with a dedicated mission – to transported to the site and assembled
the pyrolysis oil into a naphtha-quality test and prove new ideas that will cre- there.”
feedstock a current goal. ate a circular economy for plastic. The He noted that larger scale pyrolysis
“Strategically, what we need to do is Alliance can enable companies like technologies are ‘very much some-
build more capacity to make pyrolysis Greenback to be successful by pro- thing that must be built in situ’ - and
oil and not try to get the pyrolysis oil viding capital – usually in the form of typically, for these to be cost effective,
to a stage where it's exactly like naph- grants or concessional-rate loans - to they need to be built at scale.
tha. It's more difficult to actually build help to derisk the investment - “and “We are still waiting to see these
the capacity. So, let's get that done we can bring technical expertise and large-scale facilities come on stream
first,” said von Stauffenberg. knowledge to the table through our and be proven in reality,” he said. “I
Partnerships are essential team and also through our member think what we've seen with Green-
companies,” said Kolesch. “So that's a
It is clear that the kinds and scale of huge part of our mission: to develop, back in the economics is definitely
initiatives that Greenback is pursuing derisk and deploy the solutions that something that's better than a lot of
require collaboration with different are out there.” the other technologies that we've
partners across the board. Greenback come across thus far. One of the limi-
has also tackled aspects such as ensur- The Alliance is now active in more tations is of course that, at a certain
ing a feedstock supply, building offtake than 20 countries around the world point, there are economies of scale
relationships, and securing funding. with more than 50 projects. Its goal to be gained on larger-scale technolo-
is to end plastic waste in the envi- gies. But at this stage, we are quite
The latter can be especially challeng- ronment and to support that mission pleased with approach Greenback
ing, said von Stauffenberg, as, obvi- through collection activities - where has taken with its technology and with
ously, investors want to make money. everything starts. how it has been able to transform this
“It's a really difficult environment to into reality.”
raise money in, so we're very fortu- “Some of our projects have already
nate to have the Alliance helping us” that collection element dealt with, but Trust and traceability
he said. others do not, especially those target- another valuable aspect of Green-
ing communities in the more devel-
According to Kolesch, for the AEPW, oping countries in the Global South,” back’s approach is the fact that it has
what was particularly attractive about said Kolesch. developed a system called eco2Veri-
the project was the combination of tas™ to provide complete traceability
activities yielding the kind of holistic In those cases, the AEPW invests time of the entire collection and recycling
solution the organization looks for. and effort on helping communities process. It is an essential element in

PLASTICS NEWS 3333
August 2023
August 2023 PLASTICS NEWS