Suez commissions Thailand plastics recycling plant

France-based environmental services firm Suez has announced the official opening of its Circular Polymer Plant in Bang Phli, Thailand Suez refers to the facility as its first plastic recycling plant in Asia. It says the plant will be able to convert some 30,000 metric tons of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) plastic packaging scrap into post-consumer resin (PCR) plastic.

“We need to rethink the ways we use and treat plastic,” says Steve Clark, CEO of SUEZ Asia. “While plastic brings convenience to our everyday lives, it comes with the alarming consequence of millions of tons of waste in our oceans, resulting in adverse environmental impact and health effect as well as resultant economic losses.”

Adds Clark, “We are excited to open the group’s first plastic recycling facility outside of Europe, which will help encourage Southeast Asia to transform towards a circular economy and reverse the tidal wave of plastic pollution crisis. We look forward to working closely with all actors of the plastics value chain to bring us closer to a plastic free ocean.”

Suez describes its Circular Polymer Plant as one of Thailand’s largest LDPE recycling plants and says it will operate “in the highest level of compliance.” People and equipment at the plant will “qualify, characterize, measure and formulate new recycled plastics to fit customer’s specific needs.”

The company also says it is a founding member of the international Alliance to End Plastic Waste, and part of Thailand’s Public Private Partnership for Sustainable Plastic and Waste Management (Thai PPP Plastics), which Suez says helps it “collaborate with stakeholders to help protect the ocean and conserve the environment.”