Kingstown, Rhode Island—Toray Plastics (America), Inc., announces it is leveraging ExxonMobil’s Exxtend™ technology for advanced recycling and now offers its customers and partners its Torayfan® polypropylene film made with certified-circular resins. Toray’s decision to purchase ExxonMobil’s certified-circular resin helps the packaging industry move closer to a circular plastic economy.

“Choosing certified-circular resins for our Torayfan films is another important step in demonstrating our commitment to plastic circularity and delivering more value to our customers,” says Chris Nothnagle, Senior Director of New Business Development at Toray. “First, plastic is diverted from a landfill. Second, the mass balance accounting approach ensures that the plastic waste the manufacturer processes is accounted for as the certified-circular resin it sells. Toray fully supports ExxonMobil’s endeavor for a verifiable solution to help capture value from plastic waste.”

Toray’s technologically advanced polypropylene film, which is used for a wide variety of food packaging applications, provides the quality and performance customers expect. ExxonMobil’s certified-circular resin helps divert plastic waste from a landfill or incineration and does not require requalification for use with Toray’s film, as it is virgin-quality resin. The Exxtend advanced recycling process, unlike mechanical recycling, enables the production of certified-circular resins used to manufacture high-quality packaging film, which is critical for high-speed manufacturing.

ExxonMobil’s advanced recycling facilities and mass balance approach are certified through an independent, third-party certification system called International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS. The ISCC PLUS certification represents an assurance that a robust mass balance approach was followed. In October, Toray announced its film manufacturing operations in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, had received ISCC PLUS certification, enabling a chain-of-custody to be established for Toray to use and sell certified materials.

ExxonMobil’s Exxtend technology transforms plastic waste at a molecular level into raw materials, which can then be used as feedstock to make many new products. The amounts of usable raw materials are attributed to new certified-circular resin via ISCC PLUS certified mass balance.

Exxtend technology also results in lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when processing plastic waste than when processing the same amount of fossil-based feedstocks. A study conducted by Sphera, which provides ESG performance and risk management software, data, and consulting services, concluded that every 1,000 tons of plastic waste processed via the Exxtend technology resulted in 19% to 49% lower GHG emissions than processing the same amount of fossil-based feedstock.

“We are excited to work with Toray to help develop new opportunities to deploy certified-circular resins into common packaging applications,” said J. Dow, Global Market Development Manager for polypropylene, Vistamaxx™, and Exact™ at ExxonMobil. “The potential impact could be a tremendous benefit for consumers and brand owners eager to participate in the circular economy for plastics.”

To learn more about the Exxtend™ advanced recycling technology, visit https://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/en/exxonmobil-chemical/sustainability/advanced-recycling-technology.