Indaver, which hails from Belgium, but now also has facilities in 5 other European countries, including 3 in The Netherlands, treats 5 million tons of waste annually, both municipal and industrial waste, using such technologies as composting and incineration – with – energy-recovery.
Now they are moving into recycling plastic, with the support of its new shareholder Katoen Natie. They plan to build up to 10 new facilities, each capable of treating 100,000 tons of mixed or lightly contaminated plastic, at a cost of 80 million euro each. The first will be built in Flanders, the others in areas of Europe where a lot of plastic waste is available. This to avoid the long-distance transport of this relatively light waste fraction.
In order to divert plastic waste from landfill, Europe is tightening legislation. This will result in more plastic being separated out. There is an estimated 2 million tons of this type of waste per year, of which Indaver hopes to be able to treat half.
They intend to depolymerize the plastics into shorter hydrocarbon chains that can serve as feedstock for the chemical industry. This produces materials that can be used to make high-quality products.