LyondellBasell (LYB) has secured a location for an integrated plastic waste recycling hub south of an existing industrial park in Knapsack, Germany, signing a land lease agreement with YNCORIS GmbH & Co. KG. The hub is planned to combine various advanced sorting and recycling operations, helping to address the plastic waste challenge and grow the circular economy.
As per the press release, the project will be developed in phases; the initial phase will see the construction of an advanced sorting facility that will process mixed plastic waste to produce feedstock for mechanical and advanced recycling. The mixed plastic waste is not recycled and mostly sent to incineration for energy recovery.
In total, the integrated recycling hub will cover an area equivalent to twenty soccer fields. It is expected that the hub’s initial advanced sorting facility will start operations in the first quarter of 2026. The new investments support the company’s ambition to produce and market at least two million metric tons of recycled and renewable‑based polymers annually by 2030.
“The industrial park in Knapsack is the ideal location for our integrated hub as it is close to our world-scale facilities in Wesseling and will allow us to develop additional technologies for the recycling of plastic waste,” said Yvonne van der Laan, LyondellBasell Executive Vice President, Circular and Low Carbon Solutions. Laan added, “The integration of various technologies will allow us to build scale and offer our customers a wide range of products from recycled and renewable resources”.
“The integrated recycling hub will also produce feedstock for the advanced recycling unit the company will build at its Wesseling site,” said interim Wesseling-Knapsack Site Manager Stephan Staender. He added, “The new hub will also provide opportunities for synergies with the company’s mechanical recycling facility in Geleen, Netherlands and the company’s polypropylene compounding facility in Knapsack”.
“This move to our expansion site in the industrial park in Knapsack is a key building block in the transformation of the chemical industry in Germany to a circular economy,” commented Ralf Müller, CEO, YNCORIS. Fellow Managing Director Christoph Kappenhagen added, “Over the years, the site has undergone continuous development; the people here have never rested on their laurels, but have always made a significant contribution to leading the site into the future with their innovative potential”.
