Biotrend Energy building Turkey’s first polymer recycling plant

Biotrend Energy is building Turkey’s first commercialized advanced waste recycling plant.

The plant will use Honeywell UOP UpCycle Process Technology to convert mixed waste plastics into recycled polymer feedstock (RPF).

Two parallel 30,000 metric ton units will be built in Turkey’s Izmir region, and are expected to start up in 2025. The planned advanced recycling plant is expected to have the capacity to transform 60,000 metric tons of mixed waste plastics into RPF per year, twice the amount of the originally projected 30,000 metric tons announced in 2022.

Biotrend Energy will provide the feedstock for the plant and Honeywell UOP will provide related engineering and technical services, including startup, commissioning, and technical support services during the plant’s lifetime.

“There is an increasing demand for recycled plastic products as a result of the circular economy commitments made by the world’s leading companies, and Honeywell UOP UpCycle Process Technology can support Biotrend’s efforts to increase recovery volumes of circular materials,” said Salih Tuncer Mutlucan, member of the board of directors of Biotrend Çevre ve Enerji Yatırımları A.Ş.

“The advanced recycling facility we plan to establish in Türkiye will be one of the first in Türkiye and in the world, the facility will be able to recycle original raw plastic material and enable a true circular economy.”

Currently, Biotrend Energy is only able to recover a low percentage of mechanically recycled materials. Moreover, there are some types of plastic waste that cannot be recycled mechanically due to certain process limitations caused by contamination, colors, and additives used in plastic production. Currently, the plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled are either converted into Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) or stored in landfills.

“Honeywell has the proven technology to help shape the energy transition and our collaboration with Biotrend will dramatically increase the amount of plastic that can be recycled in Türkiye,” said Uygar Doyuran, Honeywell’s president of Türkiye, Israel, and Central Asia.

“Together, Honeywell and Biotrend can help enable a circular economy for plastics by converting mixed waste plastics into recycled polymer feedstock. Honeywell’s participation as an investor in this project with Biotrend demonstrates how much we trust our technology. The high performance of our UpCycle Technology gives us great confidence in the success of this collaboration.”

This announcement expands the UpCycle Process Technology footprint and builds on Honeywell’s recent announcements in the U.S., South Korea, and China.

Biotrend Energy processes 4,500,000 tons of waste per year across its 18 facilities (including pre-licensed plants) within Türkiye. Biotrend Energy’s activities include waste transfer, recycling, landfill, waste to energy, and production of organic fertilizer (compost) and RDF.

Honeywell UOP’s UpCycle Process Technology is a ready-now advanced plastics recycling technology that utilizes industry-leading molecular conversion, pyrolysis, and contaminants management technology to convert waste plastic to RPF, which is then used to create new plastics. The UpCycle Process Technology expands the types of plastics that can be recycled to include waste plastic that would otherwise go unrecycled, including colored, flexible, multilayered packaging, and polystyrene.