A groundbreaking new technology may finally be able to recycle one of the world's most used---and difficult to reuse---plastics.
PureCycle Technologies says it has developed the world's first recycling method to restore polypropylene, a widely-used plastic that can’t be recycled today on a mass scale. The technology, first developed at Proctor & Gamble, can restore polypropylene to a "virgin-like" quality, and divert tens of millions of polypropylene produced each year away from oceans and landfills.
The patented recycling technology was born in P&G labs and licensed to PureCycle, a portfolio company of Innventure, a Chicago-based firm that helps large corporations spin off and create new companies. Innventure was founded by Ex-Walgreens CEO Gregory Wasson and Michael Otworth, and its goal is to help Fortune 50 companies like P&G develop and scale new technologies.
In an interview, Otworth declined to say how much Innventure has invested in PureCycle, other than to say it's "in the handful of millions." PureCycle just broke ground on a plant last week in Lawrence County, Ohio, where it will test and calibrate the polypropylene recycling process.
PureCycle is the first of what Otworth hopes will be 5-8 new startups formed between Innventure and large enterprises. The model allows companies like P&G to utilize a highly-technical solution without having to spend time and resources developing it in-house.
"Big companies, while they do many things very well--it’s sometimes a bit harder with disruptive technologies to execute them internally," Otworth said.
Polypropylene is virtually everywhere, from the tiny caps of Tide detergent bottles to the inside of automobiles. And up until now, recycled polypropylene had very limited applications. Recycling the material resulted in an unpleasant odor and colors that are difficult for manufacturers to reuse. PureCycle says it has removed those limitations, and the startup plans to officially begin operations in January 2018, and full-scale plant operations will begin in 2020.
PureCycle will work with P&G, but will also make the technology commercially available.
“Our approach to innovation not only includes products and packaging, but technologies that allow us and others to have a positive impact on our environment," Kathy Fish, P&G’s Chief Technology Officer, said in a statement. "This technology, which can remove virtually all contaminants and colors from used plastic, has the capacity to revolutionize the plastics recycling industry by enabling P&G and companies around the world to tap into sources of recycled plastics that deliver nearly identical performance and properties as virgin materials in a broad range of applications.”
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