Environment TotalEnergies' new plastics recycling plant has come under fire from environmental activists, who claim the chemicals it uses will create more greenhouse gases than conventional recycling methods. Plastic waste from French households will be recycled using chemical processes at TotalEnergies' Grandpuits-Gargenville plant. Advertising Read more 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 a desirable alternative' However, environmental NGO Zero Waste France says it believes chemical recycling projects are nothing more than “yet another attempt by the oil industry to push the narrative that we can continue to produce large quantities of plastic, which is essential to the oil industry’s viability”. "This process emits nine times more greenhouse gases than mechanical recycling," said Bénédicte Kjaer Kahlat, a lawyer at the organisation. "So it is by no means a realistic or desirable alternative today.” Beth Gardiner, author of Plastic Inc, told French news agency AFP: “The industry is really trying to convince people that chemical recycling is a miracle solution to plastic waste proliferation, but the evidence is lacking." Globally, only 9 percent of plastic waste is recycled. Scientists say to effectively put an end to microplastic pollution, production must be reduced and limitations placed on its use. TotalEnergies convicted of greenwashing over claims of carbon neutrality The Grandpuits-Gargenville refinery and oil depot came into operation in 1966. In September 2020, TotalEnergies announced plans to convert the refinery into a zero-oil platform – at a cost of more than €500 million. The plant will handle up to 15,000 tonnes of recycled plastic annually, alongside 210,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel, 50,000 tonnes of road biofuels and 70,000 tonnes of bionaphtha, a hydrocarbon mixture produced from renewable sources such as vegetable oils, waste animal fats and used cooking oil. "The start-up of the first advanced plastics recycling plant in France is an important milestone in the conversion of our Grandpuits site into a zero-crude complex," said Valérie Goff, senior vice president of renewables, fuels and chemicals at TotalEnergies. German NGO accuses TotalEnergies of complicity in Mozambique war crimes Legal action The launch of the recycling plant comes days after a Belgian court adjourned a case in which a farmer is seeking compensation from TotalEnergies for damage to his land caused by climate change. Hugues Falys, from Hainaut in western Belgium, took TotalEnergies to court on the grounds that the group is Belgium's leading refiner and distributor of petroleum products. Falys, who is supported by activist groups including Greenpeace and food rights organisation FIAN, says the company can be held liable for global warming because of emissions generated when its products are burned – a claim rejected by TotalEnergies. The claim was filed in 2024 before the Tournai business court in western Belgium. Lawyers for both sides presented their cases during hearings between November 2025 and January 2026. "The decision to adjourn the proceedings was made in the interest of ensuring a fully informed debate," the court said in a statement. The next hearing was set for 9 September – to allow another hearing involving TotalEnergies time to finish in Paris.. That case was brought against TotalEnergies by several NGOs and the City of Paris. They want TotalEnergies to stop developing new hydrocarbon projects and cut back oil and gas production. The Paris plaintiffs accuse the firm of having failed to properly consider environmental risks under a 2017 law that imposes a "duty of vigilance" on large companies. TotalEnergies and its accusers are at odds over the definition of the environment, and whether it refers to risks on a local scale, such as a polluted river, or more broadly to global warming. The energy firm's lawyers argued global warming is beyond the scope of that law. This article was partially adapted from this report in French. Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe