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Project overview
Landscape view of the Eastman Longview manufacturing facility near the river.
Eastman Texas Operations outdoor sign on a sunny day.

Location

The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling decarbonization project will be located at the Eastman Longview site in northeast Texas. Eastman has been an active member of the Longview community for more than 70 years, currently employing over 1,500 team members at the location.

Our incredibly talented team members already working at the site will be instrumental in this project, and the area also has a strong talent pool. 

We chose the Longview site for its existing infrastructure and operations and energy supply and footprint. The location also offers access to western and central U.S. feedstock pools with space for on-site renewable energy. The facility will have the capacity to recycle approximately 110,000 metric tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste.

With PepsiCo as an early adopter committed to significant offtake from the plant, the project will accelerate the decarbonization of the consumer packaging industry.

A person in a lab wears goggles and gloves while working on a machine

Thermal batteries and solar energy

The company was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for award negotiations of up to $375 million in investment to accelerate the demonstration of industry-leading, low-carbon-intensity PET with this project.

Our project scope

Reaching a collaborative agreement with the DOE expands the project scope. This will include the deployment of thermal heat batteries, on-site solar and our next-generation technology. This scope achieves a step-change improvement in decarbonizing PET production.

Rondo Energy collaboration

Eastman has been collaborating with Rondo Energy to deploy thermal batteries for the project. Rondo Heat Batteries (RHBs) are essentially modular units containing thousands of tons of brick and coils of metal. RHBs will transform intermittent renewable power — much of it from new, on-site solar at Eastman — into heat over 1,000°C. The brick batteries can store massive amounts of heat for up to 24 hours with very little loss.

Lower carbon footprint

By incorporating thermal batteries fed by renewable energy, Eastman will be able to recycle hard-to-recycle polyester waste with a much lower carbon footprint. This will produce new, recycled materials with up to 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than materials produced with fossil feedstocks. PepsiCo has already signed a contract to use Eastman Renew materials from the Longview facility to create more sustainable packaging.

Feedstock
opportunities

The project location allows multiple access points to feedstock. It is located within approximately 300 miles of 4 of the 11 most populated cities in the country and several U.S. material recovery facilities (MRFs).

Eastman’s Longview, Texas, facility in the background beyond a river

Questions about our molecular recycling project?

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