Dow and Klean Industries to collaborate on recycling

Dow Chemical Co. and Klean Industries Inc., Vancouver, B.C., Canada, have signed a three-year letter of intent to combine their proprietary technologies and expertise to provide “best in class” recycling for mixed plastic wastes. Dow staff recently toured the world’s largest plastics-to-oil recycling plant in Japan, which operates using Klean Industries intellectual property. “This is the only technology we have seen that has consistently operated for over a decade on a commercial scale,” says Jeff Wooster, Dow’s global sustainability leader, Performance Plastics. A ton of mixed plastic waste can generate 250 gallons of oil. A mixed plastic waste stream can include PET and PVC, as well as the more predominant polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. The Japanese plant processed the mixed plastics while also producing 4 megawatts of green electricity.