Dow Axes German Plastics-Recycling Project

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Dow Incorporated (Midland, Michigan) continues to wield the cost-cutting axe in Europe with the cancellation of a project to build a chemical-recycling plant for mixed plastic waste at its Boehlen site in Germany.

The company, with U.K.-based partner Mura Technology (London, England), revealed the project in late 2022 as part of a major recycling push in Europe and the U.S. with a number of planned projects with a combined processing capacity of 600,000 metric tons per annum (MTPA). Boehlen was the first project to be identified and was to have a capacity of 120,000 MTPA. It would use Mura's patented Hydro-PRT (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Technology) that uses supercritical steam to convert most forms of plastics back into the original oils and chemicals from which they were made. It also includes flexible and multi-layer plastics, which have previously been deemed "unrecyclable," Mura stated.

In a statement emailed to Platts, Sarah Young, director of corporate media relations at Dow, said: "While the Mura Hydro-PRT facility at our Boehlen site will not proceed, we are exploring other opportunities with Mura to expand our supply portfolio in Europe." The future of the project has been in doubt since July when Dow announced the planned closure of three plants in Europe, including Beihlen, with the loss of around 800 jobs. Blaming "structural challenges" in the region, it is shutting the Boehlen ethylene cracker and its chlor-alkali and vinyl (CAV) assets in Schkopau, Germany, by the end of 2027, as well as its basics siloxanes plant in Barry in the U.K. by mid-2026. For additional information, see July 15, 2025, article - Dow Shutting Three European Chemical Plants.

Dow and Mura opened their first joint recycling project in Teesside, U.K., in 2023. It was the first commercial-scale Hydro-PRT advanced plastic recycling plant. Located at the Wilton International industrial site, it processes flexible and rigid mixed plastics, including films, with an initial capacity to produce 20 kilotonnes per annum (KTPA) of recycled liquid hydrocarbon products, with scope to expand production capacity to over three times this initial size. Industrial Info is tracking three active expansion projects at Teesside. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Project Database can click here for the reports.

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