Exxon goes forward with $200-million expansion of Texas plants

By Erwin Seba

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp, which is facing a California lawsuit over its alleged role in global plastic waste pollution, is going forward with plans to expand plastics recycling to replace fossil fuels with discarded plastic waste, the company said on Thursday.

The move by one of the world's largest polymer producers comes amid growing concerns about slow-to-disintegrate plastics filling landfills, leaching into ground water and creating potential health hazards.

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

California filed a lawsuit against Exxon in September, alleging the company was deliberately misleading the public about the limitations of recycling. Exxon rejects allegations that it misleads the public about the limitations of plastics recycling, or about climate change.

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

The products will be sold with a certificate describing their origin, explained Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions.

“We sell virgin-quality product and a subset of our customers are buying a ‘certified circular certificate’ to demonstrate that for every ton that they buy with this certificate, a ton of post-use plastic was fed into our facility," McKee said.

LyondellBasell, a rival to Exxon in chemicals, also is installing a plant in a German factory using a similar recycling technology called MoReTec that also breaks down waste plastic.

Lyondell plans to install a large MoReTec unit in Houston later in this decade after it permanently shuts a Houston refinery next year.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Lincoln Feast and David Gregorio)

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