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As brand owners set ambitious sustainability goals, especially involving packaging for food and beverage products, demand for recycled plastics has been growing. The supply of high-quality, food-grade recycled plastics, however, is limited. Chemical recycling, or advanced recycling as it is increasingly called to avoid alarming a segment of the population that views “chemicals” as something nefarious, may fill the gap left by mechanical recycling methods. To help fast-moving consumer goods companies, material suppliers, and large convertors and retailers source a secure supply of recycled resins suitable for these applications, business intelligence consultancy ICIS has developed the Recycling Supply Tracker – Chemical. The company describes the tracker as the “world’s only interactive database of global chemical recycling projects.”

ICIS notes that industry players need visibility into the current and future capacity of the recycling market to ensure they can source the necessary materials to meet their sustainability goals. “As of 2021,” writes ICIS, “the global installed capacity for chemical recycling is under 2.5m tonnes, including both commercial and pre-commercial facilities, with Asia Pacific and North America as the leading regions.” The ICIS Recycling Supply Tracker – Chemical is designed to provide up-to-date data including installed capacity, output volume, process, and feedstock, as well as details about the licensor and investors.

Chemical recycling processes can also be used to revert plastic waste back to an earlier molecular state. The ICIS Recycling Supply Tracker –Chemical has identified that, in terms of capacity, only around 20% of the global recyclers currently produce polymers as an output of their chemical recycling facilities.

The database is updated with new projects and project developments as they happen, said ICIS, helping the industry understand the pace of growth in this sector. Less than 30% of projects are currently operating at commercial scale, but over half of the plants identified are expected to start up in the next three years.

Available through ICIS Digital, the tracker is the world’s only interactive database of global chemical recycling projects, according to ICIS. Based on 18 years of recycled market expertise, with data sourced and maintained by a team of analysts with deep market knowledge and daily interactions with the marketplace, it offers the ability to filter, download, and connect with suppliers.

To learn more about the ICIS Recycling Supply Tracker – Chemical, click here.