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Exxon moves forward with $200-mln expansion of Texas plants

Exxon Mobil Corp, which is facing a California claim over its alleged function in global plastic waste contamination, is going forward with plans to broaden plastics recycling to replace fossil fuels with disposed of plastic waste, the business said on Thursday.

The relocation by among the world's biggest polymer manufacturers comes in the middle of growing concerns about slow-to-disintegrate plastics filling garbage dumps, seeping into ground water and developing potential health dangers.

Exxon, which is promoting pyrolysis strategies that convert waste into brand-new plastic, will spend $200 million in Texas to expand so-called circularity operations in a global effort to develop the capacity to procedure 1 billion pounds (454 million kg) of waste annually by 2027. The business calls its recycling technology Exxtend.

California filed a lawsuit against Exxon in September, declaring the company was deliberately misguiding the general public about the constraints of recycling. Exxon turns down accusations that it misleads the general public about the restrictions of plastics recycling, or about environment change.

The business's Baytown, Texas, complex this year will process 80 million pounds of plastic waste. The growth will allow it and a nearby Beaumont, Texas, plant the capability to process up to 500 million pounds in 2026.

The items will be sold with a certificate explaining their origin, described Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions.

We sell virgin-quality product and a subset of our consumers are buying a 'accredited circular certificate' to demonstrate that for each lot that they buy with this certificate, a ton of post-use plastic was fed into our center, McKee said.

LyondellBasell, a competitor to Exxon in chemicals, also is setting up a plant in a German factory utilizing a comparable recycling innovation called MoReTec that also breaks down waste plastic.

Lyondell prepares to set up a big MoReTec unit in Houston later on in this decade after it permanently shuts a Houston refinery next year.

(source: Reuters)