Eastman Chemical Company (EMN Quick QuoteEMN - Free Report) recently reported that it has acquired a significant amount of feedstock for its proposed molecular recycling facility in Port Jerome sur Seine, Normandy, France. The planned facility, which would cost $1 billion, will be the world's largest material-to-material molecular recycling plant.

This breakthrough demonstrates Eastman's innovative molecular recycling technology's complementary nature to the market's current mechanical methods. It also shows the growing requirement to enable circularity for more waste streams reverting to high-quality contact-sensitive output.

Eastman has inked another agreement with Interzero, a leader in plastic recycling technology with the largest sorting capacity in Europe, for an extra 25,000 metric tons of garbage, besides the 20,000 metric tons from the first arrangement revealed last year.  In order to achieve material circularity, Interzero and Eastman will process colored and opaque PET trash that cannot be recycled mechanically at the latter’s facility in France.

To recycle today's difficult-to-recycle plastic waste that is still part of a linear economy, Eastman will apply its Polyester Renewal Technology (PRT) in France. The firm's recycling technique enables the breakdown of this difficult-to-recycle waste into its molecular building elements, which are then reassembled to create like-new material without compromising quality or performance.

By upholding materials in production, lifecycle after lifecycle, Eastman's PRT permits the materials' potentially limitless worth. EMN can convert used plastic into like-new food contact polyesters with less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional techniques owing to the technology's highly effective yield and the renewable energy sources available at the Normandy facility.

Price Performance

Shares of EMN have declined 21.5% over the past year compared with 8.6% fall of its industry.

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As stated by Eastman on its first-quarter call, it will continue to uphold its pricing discipline through the rest of 2023, which should allow it to significantly recover margins. The company also expects to cut expenses in manufacturing, supply chain and non-manufacturing by a total of $200 million for the year, net of inflation.

For 2023, EMN estimates that its cash flow from operating activities will be around $1.4 billion. For the year, the company expects adjusted EPS to increase 5% to 15%, excluding a headwind related to pension of about 75 cents.

Zacks Rank & Key Pick

Eastman currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Better-ranked stocks to consider in the basic materials space include Steel Dynamics Inc. (STLD Quick QuoteSTLD - Free Report) , Nucor Corporation (NUE Quick QuoteNUE - Free Report) and PPG Industries Inc. (PPG Quick QuotePPG - Free Report) .

Steel Dynamics currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). STLD’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 10.7% on average. STLD has rallied around 27.4% in a year.

Nucor currently sports a Zacks Rank #1. NUE’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 10.8% on average. NUE has rallied around 17.2% in a year.

PPG currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. PPG’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters. It has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of roughly 6.8% on average. PPG has rallied around 19.1% in a year.