Itero to build plastic waste recycling plant at Brightlands Chemelot Campus
the 27 kiloton facility will convert hard-to-recycle plastic waste into a raw material that can be used to produce new plastic products.
Brightlands Chemelot Campus, Sittart-Geleen NL
Recycling technology company Itero today announces plans to build an innovative plant for recycling plastic waste at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Sittard-Geleen, the Netherlands. The plant will use Itero’s patented pyrolysis technology to convert waste plastics into oils, wax and gas that can be used to produce new plastic and petrochemical products.
Founded in 2010 and based in London, Itero has created a leading technology that converts hard-to-recycle plastic waste into a raw material that can be used to produce new plastic products. Itero is on a mission to help solve the global waste plastic problem. The highly efficient process reduces emissions associated with both the disposal of plastics by landfill and incineration, and the production of new plastics from fossil-derived petrochemicals. Itero believes that its proven technology can provide a solution to the problem of recycling plastic waste in an environmentally efficient way, while sitting alongside traditional recycling methods.
Demonstration plant
Engineering drawing of Itero plant technology
The creation of a first Itero demonstration plant will deliver a at-scale facility with a capacity to process 27 kilotons of mixed and contaminated waste plastics per year. The plant will be located at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, Europe’s first Circular Hub. The plant is due to come online in the second half of 2025. Although the plant will initially have a maximum capacity of 27 kilotons per year, Itero plans to build a larger scale commercial facility in the local region with other opportunities for expansion being explored in the future. Itero believes the technology provides a credible, safe, low emission route for recycling plastic. The initial demonstration plant represents a single module recycling facility, which can be scaled up at future plant locations by adding modules side-by-side.
Ideal Location
Itero signed a lease statement with Brightlands at the end of 2020 to set up a base of operations at the campus. In the meantime, Itero is working on further optimising its production process using its UK R&D facility.
“With the advice of industry experts at Infinity Recycling, we looked at several potential locations on the continent, in the UK and in the Netherlands,” said Itero CEO, Simon Hansford, explaining the choice for Brightlands Chemelot Campus, “but the facilities at Geleen and the support are perfect. We are fully onboard with the Chemelot Circular Hub philosophy. Limburg has great international ambitions in this area and we are excited to contribute to them.”
Circular Hub
Bert Kip, CEO of Brightlands Chemelot Campus, is excited about Itero’s arrival. “As a campus, we are committed to a circular future and are one of the partners in the regional alliance dedicated to achieving this, the Chemelot Circular Hub. Itero is a perfect fit in this environment and will help strengthen our ecosystem of parties with groundbreaking technologies to make new raw materials from plastic and other waste. It shows that we are increasingly becoming the place to be, including for international parties.”
Bert Kip, Brightlands Chemelot Campus CEO
Itero CEO Simon Hansford commented further: “The Campus is the ideal location for Itero, with its ecosystem of parties with groundbreaking technologies to make new raw materials from waste including waste plastic. We are excited about the potential for our new technology to provide a solution to the global problem of plastic waste. The first plant will demonstrate our ability to efficiently make valuable raw materials from waste plastic with minimal residual waste needing to go to landfill. But importantly, we can deliver this in a profitable and sustainable way.”
“We are excited about the potential for our new technology to provide a solution to the global problem of plastic waste”
Simon Hansford, CEO Itero
Ambitions
Ruud Burlet is a member of the Provincial Executive for Circular Economy and Environment on behalf of the Province of Limburg: “Chemelot Circular Hub is doing very well! The pace at which new initiatives are presented is in line with our ambitious future plan to make circularity the engine of our Limburg economy. The arrival of Itero strongly reinforces our mantra "non-recyclable waste does not exist", especially for the normally more difficult to process mixed and contaminated waste flows."