ExxonMobil’s new site in Bayton, Texas, to process plastics like synthetic turf is operational.  The company says it is already looking at options in three more locations in the US and others in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands and Singapore.

Last year, TenCate Grass announced its plans to cooperate with ExxonMobil to recycled end-of-life turf.

‘We have a lot of ambition in this space,’ says company president Karen McKee. “We have the ambition to have more of these facilities around the world as we go forward with 500 000 tonnes per year of (chemical) recycling capacity installed by the end of 2026.”

ExxonMobil is seeing interest from a growing number of customers for its certified circular raw material. This is in part thanks to the company’s ‘favourable’ carbon footprint profile, according to McKee.

She cites various studies showing there is a 20% or more reduction in emissions associated with plastics production.

California lags

Contrary to Texas, California is discouraging chemical recycling of plastics following the adoption of law proposed by State Senator Ben Allen (D). The Sunny State is home to many synthetic turf sports fields and domestic lawns. According to Allen, other laws describe these breakdown processes as disposal rather than recycling.