Molecular recycling
in Longview, Texas

Nighttime view outside Eastman’s Longview facility.

Global waste crisis

The world is facing a culmination of environmental crises. From climate change to plastic waste to depletion of natural resources — and the projection that the world will soon be home to 10 billion people — these challenges impact us all and will continue to for generations to come if we don’t deliver change now.

Circularity is a path to address these challenges, which is why Eastman is dedicated to advancing a circular economy. We want to help create needed change and improve the quality of life for all. And we do that through collaboration and innovative recycling technologies that produce sustainable products.

Each year, 460 million tons of plastics are produced globally. Of that, only 15% is collected for recycling and 9% is mechanically recycled. That means the vast majority is incinerated, dumped in landfills or otherwise ends up in the environment.

Two Eastman chemical engineers test a machine.

Our technology

We break down hard-to-recycle plastic waste to its molecular level for new products. Our technologies reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional fossil-based processes and divert plastic waste from landfills, incinerators and waterways. Polyester renewal technology (PRT) processes a particular family of materials — polyesters — and unzips them back to basic monomers, ultimately converting them into materials used in a wide range of new consumer goods.

New technology

PRT, a form of molecular recycling, allows us to divert a range of hard-to-recycle polyester plastic waste from landfills and incinerators. This includes materials like soft drink bottles, colored and opaque plastic, carpet fibers and even polyester-based clothing.

Like-new materials

Eastman’s PRT unzips polyesters, using methanolysis to convert them back to their basic monomers and create new materials. The molecules produced are indistinguishable from materials made with virgin or nonrecycled content. This process, also known as depolymerization, allows us to recycle polyester waste again and again without degradation over time and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 20%–30% at the intermediate level compared to processes using fossil fuels.

A circular solution

With Eastman’s molecular recycling technologies, we can provide an infinite life span — a truly circular solution — for waste materials. We can recycle materials that cannot be recycled by traditional methods. We’re breaking down waste into its molecular building blocks and rebuilding it into new materials. By 2030, we expect to recycle more than 500 million pounds (≈225 million kg) of plastic waste annually.

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Achieving net zero

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) was established to accelerate clean energy technologies and fill a critical innovation gap on the path to achieving our nation's climate goals of net-zero emissions by 2050. OCED's mission is to deliver clean energy demonstration projects at scale in partnership with the private sector to accelerate deployment, market adoption, and the equitable transition to a decarbonized energy system. Visit energy.gov/oced to learn more.

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Eastman’s Longview facility as seen from the outside at dusk.

Expanding our capabilities

Eastman’s second U.S. molecular recycling project was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) for an award of up to $375 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding as part of the Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP).

About the project

Creating value from waste

Eastman will construct a molecular recycling facility capable of converting waste that would typically end up in landfills or incinerators into virgin-quality polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with high material-to-material yield. The investment includes operations that will prepare mixed plastic waste for processing, Eastman’s next-generation methanolysis unit to depolymerize waste, and a polymer facility to create virgin-quality materials for packaging and textiles.

An engineer runs an analysis on laboratory equipment.

An engineer tests a sample in a laboratory.

Lowering environmental impact

PET is a high-demand material used in packaging, film and fiber applications. The facility plans to use thermal energy storage powered in part by renewable energy to decarbonize the process heating operations, resulting in a product with an estimated 70% lower carbon intensity than fossil virgin PET.

Molecular recycling in Longview, Texas