Plastic Energy powers start-up of TotalEnergies' Grandpuits advanced recycling plant
- Grandpuits TEPEAR plant started operations, processing 15,000 t/yr of hard-to-recycle plastics into TACOIL.
- TACOIL, produced via Plastic Energy's TAC technology, is processed at TotalEnergies' petrochemical sites to make plastics suitable for food-contact and medical applications.
- Project partners are Plastic Energy, TotalEnergies, Citeo and Paprec; the first batch was produced earlier this year and the technology is already proven at Plastic Energy's plants in Spain.
- The plant targets hard-to-recycle waste to help meet EU circularity goals amid Europe’s current recycling rate of under 30% for roughly 32 million tonnes of annual plastic waste.
Start-up
On 19 March 2026 Plastic Energy and TotalEnergies started operations at the TEPEAR advanced recycling plant at TotalEnergies’ zero‑crude Grandpuits complex near Paris; the facility has an annual processing capacity of 15,000 tonnes and produced its first batch of TACOIL earlier this year.
Process and output
The plant uses Plastic Energy’s TAC chemical recycling technology to convert hard‑to‑recycle plastic waste into TACOIL, a recycled oil feedstock; that oil is processed at TotalEnergies’ petrochemical sites to produce plastics suitable for food‑contact, medical‑grade and other high‑quality applications.
Scale and policy relevance
The technology has been proven at Plastic Energy’s commercial plants in Spain and is designed to integrate directly into existing petrochemical facilities; converting difficult‑to‑recycle plastics into high‑quality feedstock is positioned to help meet EU circularity targets under the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation amid current European recycling rates below 30% for roughly 32 million tonnes of annual plastic waste.
Source: Plastic Energy