Making high-quality pipes from hard-to-recycle plastic waste
Together with Neste, Wastewise and Borealis, this company has successfully produced pipes made of cross-linked polyethylene (PEX; photo), which was based on feedstock gained from chemically recycled, post-industrial waste plastic from PEX pipe production, using an ISCC PLUS certified mass-balancing approach. The partner companies believe this project is among the first implementations of chemical recycling of PEX. PEX pipes are an important contributor to energy-efficient heating and safe plumbing due to their robustness, temperature resistance and longevity, yet the interconnected polymer chains make them nearly impossible to recycle with conventional recycling technologies. The cooperation sees Wastewise use their novel pyrolysis-based chemical recycling technology to liquefy industrial waste from Uponor’s PEX pipe production, breaking the polymers down back into their building blocks, which creates an oil-like recycled intermediate. This liquid is then co-processed in Neste’s oil refinery in Porvoo, Finland and upgraded into recycled Neste RE, a high-quality drop-in feedstock for the production of new polymers. Borealis is feeding this raw material into its steam cracker and consequently polymerizing it into PE as part of its Borcycle C chemical recycling portfolio. Finally, Uponor is using the PE to create new PEX pipe systems. — Uponor Corp., Vantaa, Finland