TotalEnergies has launched France’s first advanced plastics recycling plant, with an annual capacity of 15,000 tons, at its Grandpuits site southeast of Paris. This start-up marks another step in the conversion of the refinery into a zero-crude platform.
A brand-new plastics recycling activity
The new plant uses innovative recycling technology supplied by our partner Plastic Energy. It transforms hard-to-recycle plastic waste from French households, which is currently sent to landfill or incineration, into a synthetic oil through a pyrolysis process, involving heating the waste to high temperatures in an oxygen-free environment and under pressure. This advanced recycling process makes it possible to recycle waste that cannot be recycled mechanically.
Recycled plastics identical to virgin plastics
The synthetic oil is then treated as petrochemical feedstock, as a substitute for fossil fuels. It contributes to producing recycled plastics of the same quality as virgin plastics, compatible with the strictest requirements for food contact and medical applications. TotalEnergies signed an agreement with two French partners in 2023: Citeo1 and Paprec, to secure the plant’s long-term supply of plastic waste.
“The start-up of the first advanced plastics recycling plant in France is an important milestone in the conversion of our Grandpuits site into a zero-crude complex. Alongside Plastic Energy, contributing its technology, and our partners Citeo and Paprec, we are supporting the emergence of a brand-new French plastic recycling activity,” declared Valérie Goff, Senior Vice President, Renewables, Fuels & Chemicals at TotalEnergies.
