France, March 20 -- French oil giant TotalEnergies opened the recycling plant at its Grandpuits site, 80km south-east of Paris, on Thursday.

Using recycling technology supplied by the British group Plastic Energy, it will deal with plastic waste that cannot be processed mechanically and is normally sent to landfill sites or incinerated.

Plant operators say a pyrolysis process will heat the plastic waste at high temperatures, in the absence of oxygen and under pressure, to transform it into high-quality synthetic oil, which can be used to make new plastic, fertiliser or fuel.

"This advanced recycling process makes it possible to recycle waste that cannot be recycled mechanically," said a TotalEnergies statement. 'Not...