IRONTON - PureCycle Technologies has successfully produced the first run of Ultra-Pure Recycled (UPR) resin from post-industrial recycled material at commercial scale.

This is the first step in operating PureCycle's flagship polypropylene (PP) purification facility in Ironton, Ohio. Once fully operational, the Ironton facility is projected to have an annual production capacity of 107 million pounds of UPR resin.

Confirming the milestone, PureCycle CEO Dustin Olson said the run of post-industrial material allowed the manufacturing team to test the core technology concepts across various operating conditions. " With this major milestone complete, we have demonstrated that the fundamental technology works as expected, and at scale," he said. "This is another important step in our mission towards helping to solve the plastic waste crisis. We will now build upon this accomplishment to optimize our process in order to demonstrate our technology across a variety of operating conditions and feedstocks."

One of the difficulties of recycling polypropylene is that it comes in many shapes, sizes and contamination levels. The benefit of PureCycle's technology is that it is designed to purify a variety of shapes, sizes and contaminants traditionally found in waste polypropylene.

PureCycle says that its UPR resin will be a like-virgin material, easily colourable, and not only 100% recyclable, but the Ironton facility is projected to use 79% less energy than the production of virgin PP resin.

It's also estimated to release 35% fewer carbon emissions than new PP manufacturing, further substantiating the PureCycle UPR resin's sustainability benefits.

Documentation of the milestone will be submitted to the site's independent construction monitor for formal certification of completion. The certification is required to achieve a key milestone in connection with PureCycle's Ironton financing