Starting Today, You Could Get Fined for Bringing Single-Use Plastics to Capri

This morning, French President Emmanuel Macron and Eastman (NYSE:EMN) Board Chair and CEO Mark Costa will jointly announce Eastman’s plan to invest up to $1 billion in a material-to-material molecular recycling facility in France. This facility would use Eastman’s polyester renewal technology to recycle up to 160,000 metric tonnes annually of hard-to-recycle plastic waste that is currently being incinerated.
 The investment would recycle enough plastic waste annually to fill Stade de France national football stadium 2.5 times, while also creating virgin-quality material with a significantly lower carbon footprint. Eastman is the largest investor at this year’s “Choose France” event, which is focused on attracting foreign investment to France.
This multi-phase project includes units that would prepare mixed plastic waste for processing, a methanolysis unit to depolymerize the waste, and polymer lines to create a variety of first-quality materials for specialty, packaging, and textile applications. Eastman also plans to establish an innovation center for molecular recycling that would enable France to sustain a leadership role in the circular economy.

It all started with a simple yellow dress created from old, discarded blue jeans. It was the first garment made entirely from recycled clothing seven years ago by what was then a new company, Renewcell. “The dress shook up everything,” says Tahani Kaldéus, the head of research and development at Renewcell. “This changed the equation of consumption in the fashion industry.” When the Stockholm textile recycling company introduced its yellow dress to the fashion industry on a catwalk in June 2014, it received widespread praise, because the dress looks no different from one purchased at a leading retailer. The difference, however, is the technology.