PureCycle Technologies Inc., after spending years developing a unique purification technology to recycle polypropylene, has broken through with the company's first major commercial sale of resin.
The Orlando, Fla.-based company Jan. 21 revealed a 500,000 pound purchase of PureCycle's PureFive branded recycled PP by Drake Extrusion Inc. to be used to make filament yarns that eventually could end up in products like rugs, apparel and upholstery.
"We've been looking for a partner who can repeatedly deliver a post-consumer recycled polypropylene that can be turned into a sustainable fiber for our customers. We've tested PureCycle's material under various operating conditions and produced multiple types of fiber. Their product significantly surpassed our expectations," Drake CEO John Parkinson said in a statement.
The Drake CEO said fiber including PureCycle's PP is now being evaluated by customers and his company sees use of PureCycle PP as a growth opportunity.
PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson, meanwhile, said successful use of PureFive to in PP fiber is a breakthrough for his company.
"This achievement is a testament to our technology, the quality of our product, and the talent of our team. We've worked diligently to create a compound that runs like the virgin material Drake uses for various applications. This is a transformative moment for the industry and has the ability to change the way fiber producers think about recycled PP," he said.
"We needed a partner like Drake to realize this breakthrough. Their industry knowledge and manufacturing capacity is expected to help bring PureCycle's recycled PP solution to a much larger customer-base and improve the circularity of textiles," Olson continued.
PureCycle is producing the recycled resin at the company's first plant in Ironton, Ohio, through technology licensed from Procter & Gamble Co. The company uses solvents clean used PP to create virgin-like recycled resin at a plant that cost more than $350 million.
The company, which has been working to recycle PP since 2017, also has plans to develop a second domestic location in Augusta, Ga., and other in Antwerp, Belgium.
PureCycle said about 20 percent of the world's virgin PP is used to make fiber. "Until now, there hasn't been a reliable recycling alternative to replace virgin PP due to the complexity of fiber," the company claimed in making the Drake announcement. "This is a breakthrough for the fiber industry."
PureCycle developed a compound using 50 percent post-consumer recycled PP blended with 50 percent virgin resin for Drake's use.
Drake, based in Martinsville, Va., is a subsidiary of International Fibres Group.