Exxon, under fire over plastic recycling, spending $200 million to expand Texas plants

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM), which is facing a California lawsuit over its alleged role in global plastic waste pollution, will expand plastics recycling that allows it to replace fossil fuels with discarded bottles and bags, the company said on Thursday.

The move by one of the world’s largest polymer producers comes amid growing concerns about slow-to-disintegrate plastics filling landfills, leaching into ground water and creating potential health hazards.

Exxon, which is championing pyrolysis techniques that convert waste into new plastic, will spend $200 million in Texas to expand so-called circularity operations in a global effort to build the capacity to process 1 billion pounds (454 million kg)of waste annually by 2027. The company calls its recycling technology Exxtend.

California filed a lawsuit against Exxon in September, alleging the company was deliberately misleading the public about the limitations of recycling. Exxon rejects allegations that it misleads the public about the limitations of plastics recycling, or about climate change.

The company’s Baytown, Texas, complex this year will process 80 million pounds of plastic waste. The expansion will allow it and a nearby Beaumont, Texas, plant the capacity to process up to 500 million pounds in 2026.

The products will be sold as certified recycled plastics.

“Some of our customers for plastics see real value in those, so they want to buy those certificates along with our quality plastic,” said Karen McKee, president of Exxon Mobil Product Solutions, which sells polymers to industrial customers.

LyondellBasell, a rival to Exxon in chemicals, also is installing a plant in a German factory using a similar recycling technology called MoReTec that also breaks down waste plastic.

Lyondell plans to install a large MoReTec unit in Houston later in this decade after it permanently shuts a Houston refinery next year.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)