According to a Dow spokesperson, the company is exploring other options for expanding its supply portfolio in Europe.

US chemical company Dow and British recycling company Mura Technology have abandoned their plans to build a chemical recycling plant for mixed plastic waste at Dow's site in Böhlen, Germany, according to a report by industry portal Recycling Today, citing price information service Platt. According to the report, Sarah Young, Director of Corporate Media Relations at Dow, said that although the chemical recycling plant at the Böhlen site would not be continued, the company was exploring other options with Mura. She added that the company remained committed to recycling plastic waste and had plans to continue this development together with its strategic partners.

 
In July, when Dow announced the closure of three of its upstream plants in Europe due to ‘difficult market dynamics and a persistently challenging cost and demand landscape,’ there were already indications that the plans for the chemical recycling plant in Böhlen would not be implemented. Because the Böhlen cracker in particular is expected to be closed in the fourth quarter of 2027.
 

The plant originally planned for Böhlen was supposed to go into operation in 2025 with a processing capacity of 120,000 tonnes per year. The plant was to use Mura's Hydro-PRT (Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Technology), which uses supercritical water to convert most forms of plastic – including flexible and multi-layer plastics – back into their original building blocks. According to Mura, the raw materials resulting from the process can be used to manufacture new plastic products suitable for food contact packaging.
 
Sources:

• Recycling Today (12.8.2025)
• Photo: © Dow