Visit to Environnement Recycling: Towards an Industrial Sector for the Recovery of Brominated Plastics

At the 17,000 m² industrial site, a team of over 200 employees uses advanced European technologies to decontaminate, shred and sort equipment. This process achieves levels of purity rarely seen on an industrial scale in the separation of brominated plastics.

These plastics contain bromine-based flame retardants and antimony trioxide. Currently, due to a lack of alternatives, they are mostly incinerated, despite representing a strategic source of critical metals and molecules. Recovering these materials is a significant environmental and economic challenge, particularly as Europe seeks to secure its supply of critical raw materials.

The DeeeMines project forms part of a circular economy approach. It aims to transform complex waste streams into secondary resources by using a selective chemical recycling process to extract and purify bromine and antimony without degrading the polymer matrix.

During this visit, we identified several areas in which our teams could collaborate technically and scientifically, with the aim of conducting prototype testing as early as 2026.

We would like to thank Farida and the team at Environnement Recycling for their warm welcome and the high standard of our discussions. Together, we are helping to develop the French brominated plastics recovery industry.