Ineos Styrolution, Trinseo and Recycling Technologies Partner to Build Europe’s First Commercial Polystyrene Recycling Plants

Germany‑based Ineos Styrolution (U.S. office Aurora, Illinois), Belgium‑headquartered Trinseo, and the UK‑based Recycling Technologies have announced a partnership to establish the first commercial polystyrene (PS) recycling plants in Europe, leveraging Recycling Technologies’ depolymerisation process.

All three companies share a common objective: to transform PS waste back into its original monomer, styrene, thereby achieving a fully circular material cycle. The recovered monomer can be repolymerised to produce PS with properties indistinguishable from virgin polymer, and life‑cycle assessments show a substantial reduction in greenhouse‑gas emissions compared with conventional naphtha‑derived PS production.

After a rigorous technology evaluation, Recycling Technologies was selected as the provider for the commercial scale operation. Their fluidised‑bed reactor delivers the highest yields of styrene from PS and offers the greatest scalability, supported by a highly skilled technical team.

Before the commercial facilities go online, the partners will construct a pilot plant in the United Kingdom in 2022 to further develop and optimise the technology. Data from the pilot will inform the design and operation of the future commercial sites.

Ineos Styrolution will locate its plant in Wingles, France, while Trinseo plans a facility in Tessenderlo, Belgium, slated to be operational in 2023. Each site is expected to process approximately 15 kT / year of PS waste into recycled styrene.

“Being the location of one of our polystyrene plants in Europe, Wingles is perfectly suited for our future recycling facility,” said Sven Riechers, Ineos Styrolution VP of Business Management, Standard Products EMEA.

“Polystyrene turns out to be a wonderful polymer. Depolymerisation is not only an effective recycling method, but it also preserves food‑contact compliance,” said Nicolas Joly, Trinseo VP for Plastics & Feedstocks and President of Styrenics Circular Solutions.

“Our collaboration with Ineos Styrolution and Trinseo is a strong recognition of our technology’s ability to make polystyrene circular. We look forward to working with these two global leaders to build Europe’s first chemical polystyrene recycling facility,” said Adrian Griffiths, CEO and founder of Recycling Technologies.