July 15, 2025 14:30

In China, projects tend to be outsized—even when the technology is new. The proof lies in Jieyang, Guangdong province, where Guangdong Dongyue Chemical Technology has just commissioned a chemical-recycling unit able to process 200,000 metric tons of waste plastic a year.

“Unlike the customary two-stage approach—sorting and dissolution—our technology requires no complex pre-selection,” Chairman Zhang Xingong said. “Through deep catalytic cracking, low-value mixed-scrap plastics are converted directly into high-value chemical feedstocks in a one-step process, achieving a product yield of more than 92%.”
If confirmed, such a conversion rate would be exceptional, especially with untreated feedstock.

Yet the start-up is only phase one. Two additional stages are planned, eventually lifting capacity above 3 million metric tons a year. Municipal leaders say Jieyang aims to become the world’s first dedicated base for chemical recycling of plastics and pledge to build “a market-oriented, rule-of-law, first-class international business environment to attract and serve enterprises from around the globe.”

Meanwhile, Europe continues to debate whether—and how—the output of chemical recycling should count as recycled material under the Single-Use Plastics Directive or the Packaging Regulation (PPWR), a stalemate that has frozen investments that might otherwise have begun years ago.

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