Atlanta-based Nexus Circular is receiving financial backing for its advanced recycling process from assorted players in the circular economy. The most recent example, announced in early February 2022, is an investment from plastics and chemicals producer Braskem.

Braskem’s infusion follows a recent investment in Nexus by packaging company Printpack, and another from the Six Pines subsidiary of resin producer Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem). Nexus declined to reveal the amounts of the three investments.

Nexus has developed a proprietary advanced recycling technology to convert hard-to-recycle waste plastics into feedstocks for production of virgin plastics, which are in turn used to manufacture packaging and other products.

The incoming waste plastics include grocery bags and films, which are converted back into ISCC Plus-certified virgin materials. Acceptable incoming polymers include high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS).

Nexus has already diverted the equivalent of 35 million grocery bags, or more than 4.5 million lbs of used plastics, away from landfill.

“At Braskem, we have a clear, long-term vision which is committed to a carbon neutral circular economy where nothing is wasted, and everything is transformed,” said Mark Nikolich, CEO of Philadelphia-based Braskem America, in a prepared statement.

“A critical element of achieving this vision is investing in pathways that advance the circular conversion of hard-to-recycle plastic waste to valuable new materials, diverting it from landfills and improving our environmental footprint,” Nikolich added. “Nexus shares our vision for accelerating the commercialization of advanced recycling with their own proprietary innovations, and we couldn’t be more excited to be a new investor in their journey.”

In January 2022, Printpack announced it was making an investment in Nexus as part of a larger round of private funding to support the commercial scale-up of Nexus Circular’s advanced recycling technology. Printpack manufactures flexible and specialty rigid packaging.

The month before that, Six Pines made a “meaningful investment” in Nexus Circular, according to Nexus. This investment, and CPChem’s collaboration with Nexus, will help CPChem meet its goal of producing 1 billion pounds of virgin, recycled-content polyethylene by 2030.