Recycling & Waste Management
International Project to Test Polyester Recycling Process in Germany
Stakeholders from the US and France are building a testing facility in Frankfurt in an effort to expand the scope of plastic recycling.
Oct 25, 2023
T.EN Zimmer, a subsidiary of French firm Technip Energies, will soon be testing its new procedure under real conditions at its site in the Western German city. Technip has partnered with IBM and American sportswear manufacturer Under Armour on the project.
The testing will put techniques developed by Frankfurt engineers in the laboratory over the past two years through their paces. The facility, nicknamed “Moritz,” will cost millions of euros. Construction began in September.
Roughly half of the textiles produced around the world contain polyester, but it is not effectively recycled at present. The procedure to be tested “seperates the individual components of the polymers from one another,” allowing them to be recovered without contamination, T.EN Zimmer CEO Andreas Bormann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
T.EN Zimmer was founded more than seven decades ago by Hans Joachim Zimmer, the father of renowned film music composer Hans Zimmer.
