ExxonMobil Texas’ Facilities to Recycle One Billion Pounds Plastic Waste by 2027

'We are solutions providers, and this multi-million-dollar investment will enhance our ability to convert hard-to-recycle plastics into raw materials that produce valuable new products,' said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions.

'At our Baytown site, we've proven advanced recycling works at scale, which gives us confidence in our ambition to provide the capacity to process more than 1 billion pounds of plastic per year around the world. We're proud of this proprietary technology and the role it can play in helping establish a circular economy for plastics and reducing plastic waste.'

The investment will add 350 million pounds per year in advanced recycling capacity at ExxonMobil's Baytown and Beaumont sites, raising its total capacity to 500 million pounds annually. The company is also working on additional recycling projects in North America, Europe, and Asia, aiming to reach 1 billion pounds per year globally by 2027.

Advanced Recycling Transforms Waste into Valuable Products

ExxonMobil serves advanced recycling customers in over 15 countries across various sectors, including food-safe packaging and pet food, with growing demand.
Advanced recycling enhances traditional mechanical recycling by converting plastic waste into raw materials that can be used to create valuable products, including fuels, lubricants, high-performance chemicals, and plastics. It can process a wider range of plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled and would otherwise be buried or burned.

This method plays a crucial role in a circular economy, which focuses on the entire lifecycle of plastics—from designing products for easier recycling to improving waste management systems.

'The world's plastic waste challenge will be solved with innovation, collaboration, and supportive government policy to improve waste management and circularity,' said McKee. 'ExxonMobil is doing its part by developing scalable technology, investing in recycling infrastructure and helping our customers meet their circularity goals.'

ExxonMobil's first advanced recycling facility in Baytown began operations in 2022 and is now one of the largest of its kind in North America. By October 2024, it had processed over 70 million pounds of plastic waste. In 2021, ExxonMobil also helped launch the joint venture Cyclyx to enhance the collection and sorting of plastic waste.

Source: ExxonMobil