ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell are working with the city of Houston to bring industry, government and community together into one recycling collaboration.
On Jan. 19th of this year, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the city of Houston, ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, Cyclyx International and FCC Environmental Services to form the Houston Recycling Collaboration.
This new collaboration aims to make a step change in the greater Houston area's plastics recycling rate and help establish the city as the leading center for both conventional and advanced recycling processes, ExxonMobil officials said in a statement.
"This is an exciting collaboration," said Dave Andrew, vice president of New Market Development with ExxonMobil Chemical Company. "We think it's probably one of the unique collaborations in the country right now. We're bringing together the country's fourth largest municipality, two of the world's largest chemical companies, the leading environmental services company [FCC], who I believe is the largest recycler in the state of Texas, and an innovative company called Cyclyx, which is in the business of connecting the waste management industry to the chemical industry."
Currently, the city of Houston collects recycling from single family homes and FCC takes that material and sorts it, Andrew explained. LyondellBasell and ExxonMobil are looking to come in at the end of that value chain to take some of that plastic and convert it into the raw materials that can be used to make new plastics. "We're looking to deploy different kinds of technology to do that and we can hopefully collect more plastic and different kinds of plastic, such as plastic that is difficult to recycle through conventional means and really help make an impact on the city's recycle rate," Andrew added.
"We've had simply fantastic support from Mayor Turner's office and the city of Houston," said Andrew. "We think it's a great opportunity for the city." Houston's average recycle rate is below the national average rate, Andrew said, so he believes there is a big opportunity to improve that by capitalizing on the strengths of the petrochemical industry and the infrastructure already in place in Houston.
"We believe the projects that ourselves and Lyondell have to offer to help increase this [recycle rate] are going to be important for connecting to this value chain," said Andrew. ExxonMobil's recycling facility in Baytown, Texas, recycled four million pounds of plastic last year, according to Andrew, and later this year will expand to close to 66 million pounds of annual plastics capacity at Baytown [facility].
Andrew said the chemical companies who are doing these type of projects need access to plastic feed to put into these recycling facilities. So, working to improve the collection and storage facilities is really a key part of the overall collaboration, he added.
"A big focus of the Houston Recycling Collaboration is to get better access to recycling for all residents of the greater Houston area, including families in apartment blocks, those in single family homes, small businesses, as well as those larger businesses like large grocery stores, big-box retailers, universities, and hospitals," said Andrew.
"We want to make recycling simpler for the residents of Houston," said Andrew. The deployment of more technology that can take more plastic at the end of it, and therefore reduce the burden on consumers, makes it simpler to recycle. By working together, Andrew said, the goal is to lower the cost of recycling, get more material into the system and get it up to a higher value, ultimately redirecting plastic away from the landfill.
The collaboration made early wins, Andrew said, by increasing recycle access at the community level, putting forward a clear pathway to additional investment in the value chain, and including educational and awareness programs of how to participate in recycling.
