Issue 03/2022

Not all plastics are
recycled equally
Floris Buijzen, Senior Product Market Manager
Gerrit Gobius du Sart, Corporate Scientist
TotalEnergies Corbion, Gorinchem, the Netherlands
By
Recycling
TotalEnergies Corbion has launched the world’s first
commercially available chemically recycled bioplastics
product. The Luminy ® recycled PLA grades boast the
same properties, characteristics, and regulatory approvals
as virgin Luminy PLA, and are partially made from postindustrial
and post-consumer PLA waste. TotalEnergies
Corbion is already receiving and depolymerizing reprocessed
PLA waste, which is then purified and polymerized back into
commercially available Luminy rPLA.
Of the total estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of historic plastic
production, only 9 % of the plastic waste (or 0.6 billion tonnes)
have been recycled, or about 7 % of all plastics produced [1].
Clearly, the plastics industry is facing a major challenge to
realize high recycling rates for all plastics, and bioplastics
are no exception to that conclusion.
Industrial composting is a well-established end-of-life
option for PLA and is preferred for applications like tea bags
and coffee capsules, allowing diversion of organic waste
from landfill. In addition to its already established end-of-life
options, different recycling strategies should be explored and
advanced also for polylactic acid or PLA.
Over the last years, TotalEnergies Corbion has been working
on the different parts of the recycling value chain, from
collection, sorting, and cleaning to reprocessing and reuse.
Over the last years, numerous closed-loop applications have
ensured enough volume to capture the value in recycled yet
biogenic carbon on a commercial scale. In such applications,
PLA is used in well-controlled environments, is collected
after use, cleaned, and finally, chemically recycled. Through
this process, biogenic carbon content is kept in the value
cycle and reduces the need for biomass in the production
process of PLA.
Working in close cooperation with the recycling industry,
PLA converters and reprocessors, such new PLA feed streams
now enable production of increased volumes of commercially
available Luminy rPLA at TotalEnergies Corbion’s Thai plant
(with an overall PLA production capacity of 75,000 tonnes/a).
The company is still working on increasing the availability of
recycling volumes and welcomes new partners across the
recycling value chain. For the European market, chemical
recycling capacity is foreseen in the planned second facility
in Grandpuits, France.
Currently, Luminy PLA with a recycled content of 20 % is
now offered to the market, using a mix of post-industrial and
post-consumer PLA feed.
Where possible, TotalEnergies Corbion is a strong
supporter of mechanical recycling of PLA, but for certain
applications, notably those requiring food contact approval,
mechanical recycling, whilst arguably most favourable
from an LCA standpoint, poses a number of challenges. To
overcome the purity requirements for food contact articles,
chemical recycling of PLA was developed and upscaled
successfully.
Contrary to traditional polyolefins like polypropylene,
chemical recycling of PLA is much less energy-intensive,
yet more selective. As they are not easily depolymerized,
pyrolysis of fossil thermoplastics typically requires high
energy inputs, high temperatures and produces complex,
non-selective mixtures of products [2]. Regarding process
selectivity, pyrolysis and cracking are reported to yield at
most 19–24 % ethylene and 12–16 % propylene in addition to
other chemicals and fuels [3].
PLA on the other hand is selectively broken down by different
chemical recycling routes, including depolymerization,
esterification, and hydrolysis to lactic acid [4]. These
processes are highly selective and give numerous options
to valorise PLA waste. Simply looking at the difference in
necessary heat while comparing, for example, hydrolysis
(possible at relatively mild temperatures) with classical
pyrolysis (ranging from 300–900°C), it becomes obvious that
these technologies are a far cry from each other in matters
of energy consumption. Chemical recycling as such breaks
PLA down to its basic building blocks lactide or lactic acid,
which can then be transformed into PLA at virgin quality.
One could therefore argue that chemical recycling of PLA is
a more sustainable process than chemical recycling of some
traditional polymers requiring pyrolysis.
TotalEnergies Corbion has completed food contact,
compostability, and biobased content certifications for its
Luminy rPLA offering. A third-party certification of recycled
content will be available as of June 2022 as well.
An LCA study of Luminy rPLA with 20 % post-industrial
and post-consumer waste is being conducted and will be
published shortly. The goal remains to significantly increase
volumes of mechanical and chemical recycling of PLA and to
facilitate the transition to a truly circular economy.
[1] KPMG (2019) To ban or not to ban. Available at: https://assets.kpmg/
content/dam/kpmg/uk/pdf/2019/06/to-ban-or-not-to-ban-v6.pdf (Accessed:
May 45h, 2022)
[2] J.-P. Lange, Managing Plastic Waste: Sorting, Recycling, Disposal, and
Product Redesign, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2021, 9, 15722
[3] Eunomia, Chemical Recycling: State of Play 2020, Petrochemicals
Europe Market Overview 2021
[4] R. Narayan, W.-M. Wu, C.S. Criddle, Lactide Production from Thermal
Depolymerization of PLA with applications to Production of PLA or other
bioproducts, US2013023674
www.totalenergies-corbion.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/22] Vol. 17 35