One of the world's largest consumer products companies is helping launch a reported $120m (€103m) plastics recycling plant in Lawrence County, Ohio, that promises to change the face of polypropylene recovery.
The effort seeks to produce recycled resin that's virtually the same as new.
Procter & Gamble Co. is licensing its patented PP recycling approach to PureCycle Technologies to launch a small-scale plant that will begin operating in January. Full-scale production is expected to open in 2020.
PP recycling is on the rise, and with P&G's approach, PureCycle sees an opportunity.
"This technology, which can remove virtually all contaminates and colors from used plastic, has the capacity to revolutionise 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," said Kathy Fish, chief technology officer at P&G, in a statement.
P&G is interested in plastics recycling as the company has goals of doubling the amount recycled resin used in plastics packaging by 2020.
PureCycle said its efforts also support P&G's vision of using 100% renewable or recycled materials and having no consumer waste go to landfills.
"Both manufacturers and consumers have signaled a strong preference for recycled plastics, which otherwise pollute oceans, landfills, and other natural places. Until now, recycled PP has limited applications. We're single-handedly removing those limitations and giving companies the choice to use more sustainable, recycled resins," PureCycle CEO Mike Otworth said in a statement.
His company puts the global PP market at $80bn (€68.7bn) and growing.
Organisers of the project made it clear that output from the new facility will be made available "for purchase across industries" as they announced their plans 20 July.
PureCycle is operated by Inventure, a company that includes the involvement of former Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Greg Wasson and XL Tech Group, a precursor company to Innventure. PureCycle was founded in 2015.