The companies have proposed a 50-to-100-ton-per-day polystyrene recycling facility at AmSty’s styrene production facility in St. James, Louisiana.
Polystyrene (PS) producer AmSty, The Woodlands, Texas, and Agilyx Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Agilyx AS of Oslo, Norway, a developer of advanced recycling technology for plastics, have signed an agreement to explore the development of a jointly owned advanced recycling facility.
The companies say the initial scope of the project will be a 50-to-100-ton-per-day advanced recycling facility at AmSty’s styrene production facility in St. James, Louisiana. The facility will be a next-generation expansion of Agilyx’s advanced recycling technology already in use at the parties’ Regenyx joint venture operating in Tigard, Oregon, where postuse PS products are converted into virgin-equivalent styrene monomer. A feasibility study for the project is under way, with a timeline for construction and commissioning to be announced as progress continues, the companies say in a news release about the proposed venture.
"Polystyrene is an ideal material for the future of recycling,” says Dr. Randy Pogue, president and chief executive officer of AmSty. "Not only can polystyrene products offer sustainability advantages where less material is required (e.g., a polystyrene foam cup is 95 percent air), but polystyrene is particularly advantageous for advanced recycling because it can be ‘unzipped’ back to its original liquid form, styrene monomer, using 40 percent less energy than other polymers.”
“Development of this technology has picked up over the past decade, and it is time to reach a larger scale,” says Tim Stedman, chief executive officer of Agilyx. “We have been operating Regenyx with AmSty since 2019 and are pleased to expand our relationship toward a much larger facility at St. James.”
He adds, “Joining AmSty as a co-investor underlines our commitment to accelerating the implementation of Agilyx advanced recycling technology and our licensing model. We believe that our technology will significantly increase the availability of recycled content for producers.”
Feedstock for this collaboration would be accessed via Cyclyx, Agilyx’s feedstock management company. AmSty is a founding member of the Cyclyx consortium. The Cyclyx platform encompasses chemical characterization of plastics, predictive modeling of feed sources to product pathways, custom feedstock recipes and customized supply chains to deliver waste plastic feedstocks appropriate for recycling pathways.
The investment by Clean Energy Ventures will allow Nth Cycle to scale its metal processing technology, an alternative to pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy processes.
Nth Cycle, the Boston-based maker of a recycling technology that extracts critical metals from batteries, e-waste, low-grade ore and mine tailings, has secured $3.2 million in funding from investors led by Clean Energy Ventures, also based in Boston.
Nth Cycle uses what it describes as an environmentally friendly process called electro-extraction to recover cobalt and other minerals from discarded batteries and mining ores and waste using electricity and carbon filters. The company says electro-extraction is a cleaner, lower-cost alternative to conventional pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy processes used by battery recyclers and mining companies to recover cobalt, nickel and manganese for battery manufacturing.
“As demand for batteries increases dramatically in the coming decades, we need a sustainable process for recycling and reusing critical minerals to build a secure, low-cost domestic supply chain for electric vehicles and energy storage that avoids imports from unreliable and politically unstable regions,” says Daniel Goldman, managing director at Clean Energy Ventures. “Nth Cycle’s best-in-class technology reduces the volume of e-waste headed for landfills, improves the effectiveness of existing mines and can ultimately have a material impact on climate change by mitigating over 2.5 billion tons of CO2 emissions over the next thirty years through cleaner processing and re-use of critical minerals.”
Nth Cycle, which developed its technology at Harvard University and Yale University, recently opened new operations in the Boston area and will use the funding to execute its technology road map and deploy several pilot projects with recyclers and mine operators early next year, according to a news release issued by the company and Clean Energy Ventures. The company says battery recyclers, operators of existing and proposed mines, automotive original equipment manufacturers, micromobility companies and battery manufacturers are interested in the technology to reduce reliance on imported critical metals or environmentally unfriendly recovery technologies.
“Separating critical minerals from other metals in the recycling and mining process can be costly and complex,” says Daniel Miller, Innovation Crossroads program lead at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. “A technology like Nth Cycle’s reduces the cost, footprint and environmental impact of producing recycled metals that have exactly the same composition and performance as newly mined minerals.”
“A significant fraction of the critical minerals needed for the transition to electric vehicles are already in circulation today, we just haven’t had a clean, profitable way of retrieving them, until now,” says Megan O’Connor, CEO and founder of Nth Cycle. “Through electro-extraction, we’re turning waste into valuable resources and we look forward to bringing this technology to battery recyclers and miners so we can all move together on a path toward a more sustainable planet.”
The guidance document was developed over a two-year process that combined association member companies’ insight with the association’s regulatory expertise.
The Plastics Industry Association has announced industry guidance designed to ensure packaging made with postconsumer resin meets and exceeds compliance requirements with several U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations related to food-contact materials (FCM). The guidance document was developed over a two-year process that combined association member companies’ industry insight with the association’s regulatory expertise.
“As recyclers know, federal requirements for post-consumer recycled plastics usage in food-contact applications can be extremely complex,” says George Southworth, senior director of the Plastics Industry Association Processors and Brand Owners Advisory Group. “This guidance document is the result of a collaborative effort with our valued members and will provide clarity in understanding and writing compliance statements for recycled material in food packaging.”
“We are a company that values both community citizenship and innovations that improve customer and consumer experiences, so we’ve been actively advocating for expanding access to high-quality recycled plastics,” says Phil Berrier, Product Safety & Compliance and Analytical Services leader at Printpack, Inc., Atlanta. “The guidance we created will further open supply chain collaboration for food-safe recycled materials so food packaging converters can keep up with downstream demand and brand owners can confidently promote their products.”
Key elements of the guidance document address:
The guidance document is a product of the Washington-based association’s Food, Drug and Cosmetic Packaging Materials Committee (FDCPMC). This public policy committee is comprised of company representatives from all segments of the plastics industry, working to harmonize regulatory policy that also supports economic growth and global trade in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors.
Tupperware has expanded its ECO+ line using Eastman Tritan Renew, featuring 50 percent certified recycled material.
Tupperware Brands Corp., Orlando, Florida, has expanded its ECO+ product line with two new products, Lunch-It Containers and Sandwich Keepers, as well the addition of a new material, Tritan Renew from Eastman, Kingsport, Tennessee. Tupperware says Tritan Renew will enable it to further expand ECO+ to select products that require a clear, glass-like design.
Tupperware first introduced ECO+ in 2019 with a new material that used mixed plastic waste otherwise destined for incineration or landfill, allowing more than 100 tons of CO2 emissions to be avoided, according to the company. Following the initial success, ECO+ has expanded to include a line of products made from a variety of sustainable, recycled, biobased and environmentally conscious material. The current ECO+ product portfolio includes the ECO+ Straw Set, ECO+ To-Go Cups (both made from chemically recycled plastics supplied by SABIC) and the new ECO+ Lunch-It Containers and Sandwich Keepers.
"At Tupperware, we continuously invest in new research and design for innovative, functional and environmentally responsible products that not only meet new consumer trends but build upon the love and trust we have established over our 75-year history,” says Bill Wright, Tupperware Brands executive vice president, Product Innovation. “Our efforts to support the next generation of sustainable materials continue to reflect upon our purpose to nurture a better future every day by reducing waste at every step of the product life cycle.”
Regarding the company’s partnership with Eastman, he adds, “I know together, we'll work to reshape what is possible in regard to recycled material."
Tritan Renew is made with Eastman's polyester renewal technology, a form of chemical recycling that breaks down plastic waste to its fundamental building blocks to be used to create pristine new material.
"Tupperware has been at the forefront of sustainability, even before sustainability was top of mind. The brand is synonymous with bringing durable, reusable plastics into the home to keep food fresh," says Scott Ballard, vice president and general manager of Specialty Plastics at Eastman. "At Eastman, we're pleased to make molecular recycling a reality and deliver products that reduce consumption, advance the circular economy, and create value from waste. Tupperware's choice of Tritan Renew shows what is possible today—not just years in the future."
The three resins are the first in a portfolio of PCR grades that the company is bringing to market.
Nova Chemicals Corp., Calgary, Alberta, has announced the availability of the first three grades of 100 percent postconsumer polyethylene resins that are suitable for a range of flexible film applications:
Nova’s Greg DeKunder, vice president, polyethylene marketing, says these new product offerings are backed by industry-leading technical support, designed to help film producers, converters and brand owners incorporate more postconsumer resin (PCR) into packaging applications without sacrificing performance. “We have a dedicated team with extensive applications and additive expertise helping customers accelerate their applications development work,” DeKunder says. “Our goal is for Nova Chemicals to be a one-stop resource, providing the products and technical resources companies need to achieve their sustainability goals.”
Nova Chemicals recently announced supply agreements with Canada-based Merlin Plastics and Arkansas-based Revolution. Merlin will supply Nova Chemicals with U.S. Food and Drug Administration LNO (letter of non-objection) high-density polyethylene PCR for use in consumer packaging, while Revolution is supplying Nova Chemicals with LLDPE/LDPE PCR for use in a range of packaging applications.
Many of the world’s leading consumer brands have pledged to increase the amount of PCR used in their plastic packaging to an average of 25 percent by 2025. Anna Rajkovic, circular economy market manager at Nova Chemicals, says the introduction of these products will help brands meet their goals.
“We’ve made remarkable progress in just the past few months,” she says. “We’re continuing to expand our PCR business and collaborate throughout the value chain to help the industry meet its sustainability commitments and advance the plastics circular economy.”
Nova Chemicals says these three resins are the first in a portfolio of PCR grades that the company will bring to market.