Recycling: US DOE reinstates US$375 mn recycling fund to Eastman with revised plan
US-based materials firm Eastman has announced the reinstatement of a previous US Department of Energy (DOE) award supporting the reindustrialisation of a domestic recycled-plastics supply chain. The award provides an opportunity for Eastman and DOE to advance an updated investment plan that expands US-developed methanolysis technology, restores underutilised American recycling assets and increases domestic capacity to transform difficult-to-recycle polyester waste into virgin-quality recycled materials, it adds.
The reinstated award is US$375 million, less approximately US$35 million Eastman has received related to investment in design and engineering under the previous agreement. The project scope has been adapted with key investment benefits, including:
- Expanding proven U.S. advanced manufacturing technology by increasing output from Eastman’s commercial-scale methanolysis facility in Kingsport, Tennessee, by approximately 30% through debottlenecking and technology advancements
- Restarting and repurposing underutilised US recycling infrastructure
- Setting up its second US methanolysis facility, including flexibility in the location and timing of a potential second US methanolysis facility
The reinstated award will support an integrated US manufacturing strategy spanning waste processing, advanced recycling, and production of virgin-quality recycled materials. The updated scope includes the debottlenecking of Eastman’s Kingsport methanolysis facility, the restart and repurposing of underutilised US recycling assets, and planning for a potential second US methanolysis facility.
Together, these investments are intended to strengthen domestic infrastructure for collecting and processing difficult-to-recycle polyester waste and converting it into valuable raw materials for American manufacturing.
The reinstated award builds on the success of Eastman’s US-developed methanolysis technology and the performance of its first commercial-scale facility, located in Kingsport. As previously shared, the company expects up to US$100 million of incremental revenue growth in 2026 compared with 2025 from the Kingsport facility and more than US$100 million of incremental revenue growth again in 2027. Eastman has also identified an opportunity to increase Kingsport methanolysis capacity by approximately 30% through debottlenecking with modest capital investment that will now be included in the updated scope of the DOE funding.
Eastman says its proven recycling technology gives hard-to-recycle plastic waste that would otherwise be landfilled or incinerated a new life. The process breaks down plastic waste that cannot be efficiently mechanically recycled, such as coloured and opaque polyesters, pots, tubs and trays, to its molecular building blocks and reassembles them into virgin-quality materials without compromising performance.
By keeping valuable molecules in production through a high-yield material-to-material loop, Eastman adds that it transforms waste plastic into virgin-quality, food-contact polyesters with lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional production methods.
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