Nylon 6/6 resin maker Ascend Performance Materials has purchased a majority stake in California-based carpet recycler Circular Polymers LLC.
Lincoln-based Circular recycles post-consumer, high-performance polymers including nylons 6 and 6/6, polypropylene and PET. The business will be renamed Circular Polymers by Ascend.
Circular Polymers reclaims and reprocesses post-consumer carpet via a unique technology and has redirected about 85 million pounds of waste from landfills into new goods since 2018.
Circular Polymers employs about 60 at a plant in Lincoln.
In a news release, officials with Houston-based Ascend said the deal provides the firm with a consistent supply of high-quality post-consumer materials for its ReDefyne-brand sustainable nylon resins, which it launched at the recent K 2022 trade show. Ascend has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2030.
Circular has worked closely with materials companies in the past. In 2019, it agreed to provide PET for Eastman Chemical Co.
"We are focused on helping our customers reach their sustainability goals, and [Circular Polymers] provides materials that offer strong performance with a considerably smaller environmental footprint," President and CEO Phil McDivitt said.
"Since we launched ReDefyne, the demand for our circular products has been significant across all segments of our business, including automotive, consumer, electronics and high-performance fibers and textiles," he added.
Circular Polymers founder and CEO David Bender will stay on as CEO and will own the remainder of the company.
"Since 2018, we have focused on improving the sourcing and processing of post-consumer high-performance polymers," Bender said. "Having Ascend on board will accelerate our growth and ensure these materials go back into new long-term, high-performance applications."
The acquisition is Ascend's second of 2022. In May, the firm bought the compounding business of Indian materials firm Formulated Polymers Ltd. That deal included a manufacturing site in Chennai and several warehouses across India.
Earlier this year, Ascend announced plans to build a plant making nylon feedstock hexamethylene diamine in Lianyungang, China. That plant will be Ascend's first chemical production facility outside of the U.S., as well as the firm's largest non-U.S. investment.
Ascend ranks as a global leader in nylon 6/6 resins and compounds. The firm has annual sales of more than $3 billion and is a unit of New York-based investment firm SK Capital Partners.