Chemical, or raw material recycling is a general term used to describe innovative technologies where post-consumer plastic waste is converted into valuable chemicals to be used as feedstock for the chemical industry. These technologies include pyrolysis, gasification, chemical depolymerization, cracking, catalytic reforming and hydrogenation.
With chemical recycling plastic waste is converted into raw materials, i.e. monomers, oligomers and higher hydrocarbons that can be used to produce virgin-like polymers to create new plastic articles also for direct food contact.
New technologies have been developed for chemical recycling and several pilot plants across Europe are now researching new processes to recycle plastic waste.