A new value chain collaboration between Trinseo and MagREEsource aims to develop opportunities for innovative, recycling solutions that will yield a range of valuable materials. The companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which they will explore how their combined technologies can open the door for the recycling of consumer and industrial products made primarily of PC and containing magnetic systems.
Trinseo’s technology uses a physical recycling process that requires minimal sorting, extracting polycarbonate (PC) from entire end-of-life products, even in mixed or contaminated materials. The extracted PC is recycled into new materials with over 70% cradle-to-gate estimated product carbon footprint reduction - as calculated via Trinseo’s PCF and LCA tool following the TfS guidelines and the latest European Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology - compared to its virgin counterpart, while non-PC components, including magnets, remain for further recycling.
MagREEsource has developed a circular magnet-to-magnet recycling model which the company uses to recover end-of-life rare-earth magnets from waste. It then manufactures and new low-carbon magnets for demanding applications like windmills, electrical vehicles, aeronautics or medical to meet EU market demand.
According to Trinseo Chief Technology & Sustainability Officer Han Hendriks, the companies’ technologies are complementary, and ‘we believe that value chain collaborations are fundamental to advancing sustainability’.
“Our collaboration has potential to benefit the value chain as byproducts of Trinseo’s dissolution process could serve as input materials for our process. Byproduct magnets are an important part of supply for our MagFactory (1,000 t/year of magnets production), construction of which is anticipated to begin at the end of 2026,” explained Erick Petit, President, and co-founder at MagREEsource. “Given the European Union’s ambitious sustainability plans, these innovations from MagREEsource and Trinseo contribute to advancing the EU industry’s progress toward sustainability targets by enabling increased material recovery and emissions reduction.”