ITRI partners with industry, government, academia to break plastic packaging bottlenecks, drive circular economy.

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) announced today that it has formed a cross‑industry alliance to demonstrate the conversion of waste plastic packaging into lightweight petroleum products. The partnership brings together representatives from industry, government, academia, and research, including Chimei Industrial, FamilyMart, Taiwan Hi‑Psi, Weixin Co., China Airlines, and Haishen Global, a supplier of pyrolysis oil. The goal is to establish a model that successfully transforms discarded plastic packaging into a circular feedstock for petrochemicals, thereby breaking the bottlenecks of traditional landfill and incineration methods and providing a viable technological pathway for Taiwan’s circular economy and net‑zero carbon targets.

Global pressure to reduce plastic use and achieve net‑zero emissions has intensified, placing environmental compliance demands on brands and manufacturers. Plastic products remain essential in modern commerce because of their light weight, durability, and low cost, particularly in retail and airline catering, where packaging waste is substantial. Conventional recycling is hampered by complex materials, high cleaning costs, and secondary contamination, forcing many composite or soiled soft packaging materials to be incinerated or buried—wasting resources and imposing long‑term environmental burdens.

In this context, ITRI is acting as a bridge, linking key nodes in the supply chain to advance chemical recycling of waste plastic. The alliance includes packaging users, distribution channels, recycling facilities, pyrolysis technology providers, and end‑users in petrochemicals and aviation. FamilyMart, as a frontline retail channel, handles large volumes of consumer packaging daily. Chimei Industrial, a leading petrochemical and materials company, can reformulate recycled feedstocks into high‑quality plastics. China Airlines represents the transportation sector’s demand for sustainable aviation fuels and low‑carbon materials. Together, the partners form a closed‑loop ecosystem.

A core technology of the alliance is pyrolysis, supplied by Haishen Global and other vendors. Pyrolysis converts plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled into pyrolysis oil through high‑temperature cracking. This process breaks down the carbon structures and produces a lightweight chemical feedstock that Chimei Industrial and other petrochemical firms can re‑integrate into their production lines, yielding plastic pellets that meet original quality specifications. By transforming waste into a chemical resource, the approach extends the life cycle of carbon and dramatically reduces dependence on fossil fuels, realizing true resource circularity.

For Taiwan’s industry, the establishment of this demonstration alliance carries deep strategic significance. As major economies in Europe and the United States roll out carbon border adjustment mechanisms and mandatory recycling ratios, export‑oriented Taiwanese firms must pre‑emptively develop low‑carbon and circular material capabilities. The cross‑sector integration test will accumulate local data on chemical recycling operations and commercial models, enabling downstream brands to meet international green supply‑chain requirements and enhancing Taiwan’s competitiveness in the global market. This initiative lays a solid foundation for future sustainable development.

(Source: Central News Agency)