Creating a circular economy through plastics recycling | Podcast

Recycling plastic into feedstock is a crucial piece of the energy transition puzzle. Converting plastic waste into feedstock offers multiple benefits:

Waste reduction – reducing the amount of plastic sent to landfills.
Emissions reduction – producing new plastic from recycled material uses 66% less energy than producing from raw petroleum.
Resource conservation – for every ton of plastic recycled, we save 3.8 barrels of oil.

These efforts significantly impact decarbonisation targets, but how can the energy industry develop more pathways to streamline the process? On the Interchange: Recharged this week, David Banmiller is joined by Adela Putinelu, Head of Policy and Sustainability at Plastic Energy. Plastic Energy specialises in converting end-of-life plastic into feedstock, replacing fossil oils to produce new plastic.

But how does the technology work? What’s the science behind it? And how does recycling fit into a corporate ESG profile?

Global efforts to achieve a circular economy have prompted new uses for the technology. Adela explains why, and what the technology is. Petrochemical companies are looking to expand the range of alternative feedstocks they use, whether recycled, like the ones Plastic Energy delivers, or bio-feedstocks.

Plastic production is an intense process. Reducing the amount of fossil fuels needed in production, closing the loop on the supply chain and minimising the amount of waste going into landfills is an important contributor to the energy transition.

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