Environmental protection requirements continue to increase, and the waste plastic chemical recycling market has huge development potential

Chemical recycling of waste plastics is a process in which plastic waste undergoes a series of chemical transformations to generate intermediate chemicals such as oil, gas, carbon, and monomers. my country is a major producer and consumer of plastic products, and its annual output of waste plastics ranks among the top in the world. If waste plastics cannot be recycled in time, it will cause serious harm to the environment. In recent years, as environmental protection supervision has become increasingly strict, the waste plastics recycling industry has developed rapidly.

According to different processing methods, waste plastic recycling can be divided into two categories: physical recycling and chemical recycling. Physical recycling has the advantages of simple process and fewer steps, and is currently the mainstream method of recycling waste plastics. However, physical recycling has problems such as low utilization rate, high pollution hazards, and difficulty in sorting. Against the backdrop of rising demand, physical recycling is gradually unable to meet market development needs. Chemical recycling is an important complement to physical recycling, not only solving the problem of plastic pollution but also helping to reduce carbon emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

In terms of policy, in order to encourage the development and application of chemical recycling technology, relevant departments have issued a number of policies in recent years, such as the “Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening Plastic Pollution Control” and “Technical Specifications for the Control of Waste Plastic Pollution” (Draft for Comments) , “The 14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development”, etc. At present, my country’s waste plastic chemical recycling market is still in its infancy, but under the guidance of policies, waste plastic chemical recycling projects will be accelerated.

According to the “2023-2027 China Waste Plastic Chemical Recycling Industry Market Monitoring and Future Development Prospects Research Report released by the Industrial Research Center It shows that in recent years, the waste plastic chemical recycling market has attracted a lot of attention, and companies including LyondellBasell, SABIC, BASF, Dow, Eastman, ExxonMobil and other companies have deployed in this market. Driven by policy support, corporate assistance, and technological progress, the development of the waste plastic chemical recycling market will accelerate. It is expected that its share in the waste plastic recycling market will reach more than 15% in 2028.

In terms of technology, there are various chemical recycling technologies for waste plastics, including peroxidation, partial oxidation, anaerobic pyrolysis, depolymerization, etc. Among them, pyrolysis and depolymerization are commonly used processes. Cracking methods are divided into two categories: thermal cracking and catalytic cracking. The subdivided technologies include microwave cracking, gasification cracking, heating cracking, hydrocracking, catalytic cracking, etc. Among them, the heating cracking method has a higher degree of commercialization . my country’s leading companies in waste plastic chemical recycling technology include Zhejiang Jiaren, Kemao Energy, Shuye Environmental Protection, etc.

Industry analysts said that physical recycling is currently the mainstream process for waste plastics, but compared with physical recycling, chemical recycling has many advantages. Its proportion is expected to continue to increase in the future. At present, my country’s waste plastic chemical recycling market is still in the early stages of development, but my country has the largest volume of plastic waste in the world. With the gradual implementation of policies such as garbage classification and circular economy, the waste plastic chemical recycling market has broad room for development.