Pyrowave (Oakville, ON, Canada), a pioneer in microwave-based recycling of plastics, and Ineos Styrolution America LLC, the U.S. subsidiary of the global styrenics producer headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, announced a strategic partnership to support Pyrowave’s North American polystyrene recycling project.

The objective of this project is to demonstrate the recyclability of post-consumer polystyrene packaging using Pyrowave’s innovative Catalytic Microwave Depolymerization technology. This consortium project will be represented with various players from the value chain of the polystyrene industry; Ineos is the first manufacturer to join the consortium.

“We are very excited to collaborate with Pyrowave in this project,” said Ricardo Cuetos, VP Standard Products for Ineos Styrolution America LLC. “At Ineos Styrolution, we are committed to exploring ways toward a circular economy. Polystyrene is too valuable a material to end up in landfills. Pyrowave’s North American project is a significant component in our efforts to recycle polystyrene by taking advantage of innovative technologies.”

Pyrowave’s principal advantage is the modularity of its technology, which is intended to be installed and operated in existing sorting facilities, similar to other recycling equipment. Also, its unique microwave technology is the first of its kind at commercial scale and generates high yields of monomers with very low energy consumption. Pyrowave spent three years exploring the technology on post-consumer polystyrene waste, and now, it is operating a full scale machine in Montreal. Pyrowave’s next phase is to deploy units in the field and demonstrate its business model with a strong consortium of industry leaders representing the value chain, said the release from Ineos and Pyrowave.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the support of Ineos Styrolution in the project as it shows strong leadership from the polystyrene industry that wants to improve the life cycle of polymer products,” said Jocelyn Doucet, founder and CEO of Pyrowave. “We believe that plastics are meant to stay in our modern world and to continue delivering broad benefits during their use phase. However, this must include end-of-life-solutions. We believe the future of plastic is circular. Our technology combined with the support of the industry will help improve our world’s resource efficiency for the good of future generations.”

When asked about whether the company is also recycling expanded polystyrene (EPS), Doucet told PlasticsToday: “We are processing EPS and regular PS. Our goal is to process post-consumer material that existing EPS/PS recycling companies cannot process because it is not white like electronics packaging.”