"We need to make sure we're doing everything we can as the world's largest producer of polyethylene and polypropylene and other plastics — that we're doing everything we can to keep plastics out of the landfill on our home turf."
That was the message from Travis Brown, Mont Belvieu Plastics Plant business team lead at ExxonMobil, during the Advanced Recycling Panel at the Economic Alliance Houston Port Region Industrial Procurement Forum in Pasadena, Texas. Brown said the company's advanced recycling technology is designed to handle "a very mixed feed" and convert previously hard-to-recycle plastics into new feedstock.
"Advanced recycling is taking the proven schedule technology … We take a lot of those hard, recycled plastics. We're a compliment to the mechanical recycling world," Brown said. "Once you add enough heat and pressure, it all goes back to those base couple of molecules that are the building blocks for everything."
For local governments, the technology aligned with a growing demand from residents. Mont Belvieu City Manager Brian Winningham said, "The people in the area want to give back. They want to feel like they're doing something for the planet." The city built a staffed, simplified drop-off site and immediately saw interest grow. "People are asking for more. Can we do more days? Can you pick it up at our house?"
Chambers County faced similar pressure. Its recycling program collapsed after materials were repeatedly rejected by processors. "We were using county resources to train, to collect these materials, transport them, just to have them rejected and being brought back to the landfill anyway. For us, that was not great," said Samantha Humphrey, Chambers County public information officer and director of economic development. She added, "There was a revolt when we had to stop collecting recycling."
The county began searching for a new model and found one through a regional partnership. "We found a great partner in TALKE … they are wonderful people to work with," Humphrey said. "We were able to use land that they had, and we provided funds to help construct the facility where we will transport our materials."
Winningham clarified the land arrangement: "It wasn't built on city land. It was a partnership. It's TALKE-owned land." His immediate concern was financial. "The first question I had was, okay, so who's paying for it?" Mont Belvieu invested in site preparation, including "a couple $100,000 worth of concrete and bins and fencing," while the county funded construction of the larger aggregation facility. "All the things we're doing is a scalable model," he said.
The program directly supports ExxonMobil's growing advanced recycling capacity. Brown explained that the company's first facility began operating in 2022, followed by a second in 2025, each with 80 million pounds of annual production. A planned $200 million expansion will add another 350 million pounds.
Jeremy Osterberger with BIC Alliance, Brian Winningham with the City of Mont Belvieu, Samantha Humphrey with Chambers County and Travis Brown with ExxonMobil after a successful panel discussion.
"Rough numbers, that'll bring us to a half a billion pounds of annual advanced recycling capacity in the near future. And the big thing there is we need feedstock," Brown added.
Community education has been key, Humphrey said. Chambers County is using signage, mailers, social media and person-to-person conversations at local schools and organization meetings to rebuild trust and participation. "If your kids buy into it [recycling], they come home excited and it's really hard to tell a cute kid no," she said.
Winningham said the model is meant to be shared: "If we can just give this model to everybody else, that's success."
Humphrey led the final sentiment and all panelists agreed, "We want this to be the spark that starts the flame."
