ExxonMobil Builds First Large‑Scale Advanced Plastic Recycling Plant in Baytown, Texas

The first large‑scale advanced plastic‑waste recycling facility that ExxonMobil is building will begin construction at its Baytown, Texas, site shortly, with operations slated to start by the end of 2022.

In a prior announcement (PT, Sept. 2021, “Chemical Recycling Poised to Take Off”), the company had finished the first phase of a pilot plant that uses a proprietary chemical recycling process in Baytown. The pilot earned certifications through the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification Plus (ISCC+) system, which is widely recognized for validating products derived from advanced recycling via mass‑balance attribution.

While the temporary plant currently produces certified circular polymers at commercial volumes, it will be sold to meet the growing market demand by year‑end. “Reliable advanced recycling capacity is essential for reducing plastic waste in the environment, and we are assessing global deployment of this technology,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Chemical.

The new facility follows the successful validation of ExxonMobil’s proprietary process, which has already recycled over 2.2 million lb—equivalent to 200 million grocery bags—at a rate of 33 000 lb per day. Once the large‑scale plant is complete, Baytown will rank among North America’s largest plastic‑waste recycling sites, with an initial annual capacity of 66 million lb. The capacity can be expanded rapidly should policies and regulations that recognize the lifecycle benefits of advanced recycling be enacted for residential and industrial waste streams.

Over the next five years, ExxonMobil plans to add approximately 1.1 billion lb of advanced recycling capacity worldwide. In Europe, the company is partnering with Plastic Energy on a facility in Notre‑Dame‑de‑Gravenchon, France, expected to process 55.1 million lb per year upon its 2023 start‑up, with potential expansion to 72.7 million lb annually. ExxonMobil is also evaluating sites in the Netherlands, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Canada, and Singapore.

To bolster collection and sorting of plastic waste, ExxonMobil has formed a joint venture with Agilyx Corporation, creating Cyclyx International LLC. The venture focuses on innovative solutions for aggregating and pre‑processing large volumes of plastic waste that can be converted into feedstocks for high‑value products, supplying both ExxonMobil’s projects and other customers. ExxonMobil is a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a coalition that accelerates investment in safe, scalable, and economically viable solutions to combat environmental plastic waste through a portfolio of over 30 projects in multiple countries.