Chinese recycled polymer producer Zhenjiang Ceville has started building a recycled plastic plant in Zhenjiang city in east China Jiangsu province to meet rising demand for such products.
The new project includes waste bottle washing, shredding, pelleting units and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) chemical recycling facilities to produce 100,000 t/yr of mechanically recycled food-grade or multi-purpose recycled PET (rPET) pellets, 40,000 t/yr of mechanically recycled food-grade recycled polyethylene/polypropylene (rPE/rPP) and 10,000 t/yr of chemically recycled PET pellets.
Total investment is 500mn yuan ($69mn). Ceville is targeting to commission the PET chemical recycling unit in the first quarter of 2025, and the other units will be on line between the second quarter and third quarter of the same year.
Ceville was set up in 2018 and producing recycled polyester staple fibers was its main business. But rapidly rising demand for food-grade recycled polymers led to it commissioning a 25,000 t/yr 100pc mechanically recycled PET pellet plant in late 2021 and a 10,000 t/yr rPE/rPP unit in 2022.
The company is the first mainland Chinese company to get European Food Safety Authority certification for its recycled post-consumer PET to be used as food-grade material.