Suez, Loop Industries, SK Geo Centric select Saint-Avold for manufacturing site

SUEZ, Loop Industries and SK Geo Centric announced that the Chemesis industrial platform in Saint-Avold, located in the Grand Est region of France, has been selected as the site for their planned manufacturing facility in Europe. This international project, supported by the French Ministries of Industry and Ecology, the Grand Est region and the Saint-Avold Synergy region community, leverages the experience of SKGC in petrochemical processes, the expertise of SUEZ in the area of resource management and the innovative depolymerization technology of Loop. The facility will manufacture 100% recycled and infinitely recyclable virgin-quality PET resin and has a planned capacity of 70,000 metric tons per year. This facility will help address the demand for recycled PET, which has continued to grow due to European regulations and requirements and will provide European-based global brands with a solution to their sustainability objectives of increasing the use of recycled content in their packaging and products. The Saint-Avold Chemesis industrial platform is strategically situated in the heart of Europe and provides an efficient industrial and infrastructure network making it the optimum environment for the manufacturing facility. This project, which represents a projected overall investment of EUR 450 million, will contribute to the sustainable revitalization of the local industrial base and enable the direct creation of 200 new jobs. Loop’s depolymerization technology utilizes low heat and no added pressure to upcycle low to no value feedstocks into the highest purity, virgin-quality PET plastic. At full capacity, the facility could save over 255,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, when compared to virgin PET resin made from fossil fuels. The entry flows of feedstock will be collected, sorted and prepared by SUEZ, leveraging its knowledge of the European plastics market, its partnerships with industrial players and its dense treatment infrastructure network coverage. By leveraging low value waste that is currently destined for landfill or incineration, this facility offers a solution to the global plastic waste challenge. A local consultation process will be launched in the coming weeks to present the project to the general public. The three partners aim to start construction work in early 2025 with plant commissioning slated for 2027.