Shells drops chemical recycling target

Shell has abandoned its goal of turning one million tonnes of plastic scrap into pyrolysis oil by 2025.

The admission comes in the oil giant’s annual sustainability report in which it says: ‘We concluded that the scale of our ambition to turn one million tonnes of plastic waste a year into pyrolysis oil by 2025 is unfeasible.’

Shell attributes the change to a lack of available plastic waste feedstock, slow technology development and regulatory uncertainty.

Viable feedstock

‘We continue to work with partners across the plastic waste value chain, such as the waste management industry and pyrolysis oil producers, to help develop a circular value chain globally,’ the report maintains.

Shell still sees recycled plastic waste as chemical feedstock within a viable plastic circular economy. Work on its new pyrolysis oil upgrader at the Shell Chemicals Park Moerdijk in the Netherlands will continue. The plant will have the capacity to process up to 50 000 tonnes of pyrolysis oil a year.

Agreements

‘We are working with partners across the plastic waste value chain, such as the waste management industry and pyrolysis oil producers, to help develop a circular value chain globally. In 2023, we signed several strategic co-operation agreements with partners to unlock access to plastic waste feedstock. We aim to enable long-term storage of pyrolysis oil,’ the report says.

Elsewhere in the report, Shell says: ‘We are working with our suppliers and contractors to help end plastic waste in the environment. By 2030, we aim to increase the amount of recycled plastic in Shell-branded packaging to 30%. We also want to ensure that the packaging we use for our products is reusable or recyclable.’

Read the report here >>