PureCycle Technologies, Chicago, has announced an agreement with beauty company L’Oréal, Paris, to supply polypropylene (PP) that has been recycled using technology it has licensed from Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati.   

With this agreement, the production from PureCycle’s still-under-construction Ohio plant has been fully contracted for sale, the company says. It also gives L’Oréal the option to be among the first purchasers of volume out of PureCycle’s first plant in Europe.

In the news release announcing the agreement, PureCycle says it is “accelerating the build-out and commercialization of its technology in key global markets to keep up with demand.”

“We continue to see an increasing global need for a recycled resin with virgin-like properties. With our first plant in Ohio already being sold out more than two years before the plant will be producing commercial scale volumes, this showcases the intense demand resulting in an accelerated build-out of our next plant in Europe,” says Mike Otworth, CEO of PureCycle Technologies.

In addition to being a customer, L’Oréal has become a strategic partner for PureCycle and is bringing consumer market knowledge, technical expertise and a global perspective to help ensure that PureCycle’s PP meets and exceeds consumer demand for a recycled resin that delivers virgin-like aesthetics and performance, PureCycle says.

“For L’Oréal, the agreement represents a strategic next step in our sustainable packaging strategy, designed to accelerate the transition to the circular economy,” Philippe Thuvien, vice president of packaging and development for the L’Oréal Group, says. “L’Oréal’s ambition is that by 2025, 50 percent of the plastics used in our packaging will either be bio-sourced or of recycled origin, which encompasses all plastic types, polypropylene being a major milestone. We are convinced that it is our responsibility to support the rising of cutting-edge recycling technologies.”

PureCycle is building its first plant in Lawrence County, Ohio. The company says the plant will produce more than 105 million pounds of recycled PP annually using 119 million pounds of scrap input. Production is scheduled to start in 2021.

The company says demand for the volume to be produced by its first plant exceeds its production capabilities, leading PureCycle to begin planning for a second plant in Europe. PureCycle says it is evaluating locations.

PureCycle says it plans to seek bond financing with Piper Jaffray and has received an independent evaluation conducted by Moody’s Investor Services with respect to attaining a Green Bond Rating, achieving a rating of Excellent (GB1).

PureCycle Technologies is a portfolio company of Innventure, a Wasson Enterprise Partnership.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Graham Packaging has announced the release of its 2018 Annual Sustainability Report. The company, which describes itself as a global leader in the design and manufacturing of innovative and sustainable plastic packaging, says the report provides an overview of its “commitment to helping create a circular economy, which aims to minimize waste through the use of available resources.”

“We understand the ubiquitous role plastic plays in the daily lives of consumers,” says Mike King, CEO of Graham Packaging. “As leaders in the plastic packaging industry, Graham Packaging has always been driven to find sustainable solutions for our customers. This report shines a light on our company’s legacy of innovation while offering a glimpse into our roadmap for delivering innovative, sustainable packaging solutions to markets we serve around the world.”

A pledge signed by the company commits it to making its full line of packaging 100 percent recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. Included in this effort are initiatives such as designing for recyclability, acquiring and introducing more recycled content into products and reducing the barriers to recyclability through the use of bio-based and chemically recycled plastics.

The report outlines other Graham Packaging sustainability efforts, including what it calls its ongoing commitment to increase the recycling infrastructure, minimizing water and energy use in its plants, and reducing the carbon footprint by lightweighting products.

Graham Packaging makes and sells customized blow-molded plastic containers into the food and beverage, household and automotive lubricants and other markets. The company says its flagship manufacturing facility is in York, Pennsylvania, while it produces more than 16 billion container units annually at nearly 70 plants in North America, Asia, Europe and South America. In 2011, Graham Packaging was acquired by Reynolds Group Holdings.

The city of Montgomery, Alabama, has selected Rubicon Global, Atlanta, to implement a smart city solution to improve residential and commercial waste and recycling services for its more than 200,000 citizens. Rubicon will equip the city with more than 60 vehicles that have RubiconSmartCity technology to improve performance, reduce maintenance costs and enhance residential and commercial sanitation service.

The city piloted the RubiconSmartCity platform for six months in 2018 and now chooses to move the program forward by creating a 3-year contract with Rubicon. 

The RubiconSmartCity platform includes a smartphone-based mobile app, a plug-in device and a web-based portal. The technology allows Montgomery’s Solid Waste Department to track metrics, including service confirmations, missed pickups and issues at the curb as well as vehicle usage and maintenance information. Rubicon says this leads to more efficient operations and ultimately improved service for its customers and citizens.

“The RubiconSmartCity platform helps cities of all sizes leverage data to make smarter decisions about waste, recycling and city operations, leading to improvements in sustainability and quality of life …,” says Michael Allegretti, chief strategy officer at Rubicon. “[Through] piloting RUBICONSmartCity, the city of Montgomery was able to view and analyze data that is helping the city improve customer service and shape future policy decisions.”

Through its partnership with Rubicon, the city of Montgomery earned a Smart 50 Award, an award that recognizes the 50 most transformative smart city projects around the world annually.  

“Not only are we saving staff time and taxpayer dollars with Rubicon, but this is an essential part of our overall smart city strategy since it ensures our sanitation and fleet organizations are working smarter, not harder, to enhance our residential and commercial services,” says Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange. “It is another investment that will pay dividends for future growth and development by affecting overall quality of life in the ‘Capital of Dreams.’”

RubiconSmartCity has been rolled out in more than 30 cities across the U.S., including Atlanta; Columbus, Georgia; Fort Collins, Colorado; Irving, Texas; Montgomery, Alabama; Norfolk, Virginia; Philadelphia; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Spokane, Washington; Tyler, Texas; and West Memphis, Arkansas.

Petcore Europe, an industry organization that represents the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) value chain based in Brussels, has launched PET Monomer Recycling, a special industry group. The group will help to establish a strong, sustainable value chain in the development of reusing the monomers from PET waste, Petcore Europe reports in a news release announcing the new group.

“The mission of this new group is to facilitate a platform to position PET monomer recycling as a viable addition to the established mechanical recycling process, enhancing the circularity of PET,” says Christian Crépet, executive director of Petcore Europe. 

“Mechanical recycling of PET has been the pace setter for many years, presenting PET as a most suitable recyclable material,” PET Monomer Group states on its website. “However, advancements in packaging and wider use of PET has led to more complexity of recovery after use. The advent of monomers from postconsumer PET has also been around for years, but not commercially and technically available at scale. Due to the interest to develop more circularity of the PET value chain, monomer recycling of PET becomes feasible and is gaining momentum.” 

The new group will use networking and outreach of the Petcore organization to interact with legislators, regulators and nongovernmental organizations to ensure chemical recycling of PET is an acceptable business. The group will work to ensure health and safety aspects of this line of business as well as gaining new product acceptance.