(Yicai Global) Aug. 23 -- German polymer giant Covestro has broken ground on its first dedicated line for the mechanical recycling of polycarbonate at its integrated site in Shanghai. It will be able to turn out over 25,000 tons of high-quality polycarbonates and blends a year, meeting increasing demand for more sustainable solutions to recycling plastic waste from consumer goods.

With investment of more than EUR27 million (USD26.8 million), the project is expected to come online next year, Leverkusen-based Covestro said in a statement on Aug. 19.

Covestro, a leading producer of high-quality polymer materials and components which separated from German pharmaceuticals giant Bayer in 2015, has invested EUR3.6 billion (USD3.7 billion) in its Shanghai base since 2001. The company now has 11 plants there, making it the world's largest integrated production site.

“The MCR production line is another exciting step we have taken to fulfill our commitment toward a circular economy and achieve our goal to become operational climate neutral by 2035,” Chief Commercial Officer Sucheta Govil said in the statement.

“Recycling plastic waste is absolutely essential to the circular economy, and addresses one of the major global challenges we face together as a society,” she said.

China was Covestro's biggest single market for the second year in a row last year, contributing about 22 percent to its EUR15.9 billion (USD15.8 billion) global sales, up 48.5 percent from 2020.

“To meet the rapid growth in demand for more sustainable and circular solutions from our downstream customers, we will continue to invest in expanding our capabilities,” Lily Wang, head of Covestro's engineering plastics segment, said at the groundbreaking event.

“This MCR production line is the latest example of our efforts in this regard and signals our commitment to driving the transition to more sustainable products in this region, especially in China,” she added.

Covestro also announced on the same day a plan to repurpose an existing compounding line at its Map Ta Phut site in Thailand into a plant for mechanical recycling. The conversion will be finished by the end of this year. The firm aims to deliver more than 60,000 tons of polycarbonates with recycled content in the Asia Pacific region each year until 2026.

Last month, Covestro began building two new plants at its Shanghai site, costing tens of millions of US dollars to meet increasing demand for high-performance materials used in offshore wind projects. The plants, which make waterborne polyurethane dispersions and polyurethane elastomers, are set to start operating in two years.

Editor: Futura Costaglione