Polystyvert unveils the world’s first polystyrene dissolution recycling plant

Polystyvert has announced the opening of the world’s first polystyrene (PS) dissolution recycling plant, located in Montreal’s Anjou industrial park, Canada.

The plant will be able to recycle up to 600 tonnes of PS a year, at a production rate of 125 kg/h.

The company says this is a major step forward for the cleantech start-up, demonstrating success in scaling up its technology and opening the door to global marketing.

Recycled PS resin has properties similar to virgin PS and can be used to manufacture new polystyrene products.

Polystyvert’s dissolution process reduces the environmental footprint of PS as it does not require water and the operations are performed at low temperature, making it energy efficient.

Recycled PS is also less expensive to produce than new PS and can be used in high proportions, achieving a sustainable extension of product life cycle and opening the door to a broader market than that available to current mechanical technologies.

The start-up of Polystyvert’s first plant follows the announcement in June 2018 of a second round of financing totalling $11 million (£8.5 million).  

In addition, Polystyvert recently signed a cooperation agreement with Total Polymers, a subsidiary of global energy leader Total, specifically targeting dissolution and recycling of domestic post-consumer polystyrene, to drive development of this technology on a large scale.

“The technology developed by Polystyvert will transform the polystyrene recycling industry, currently one of the world’s most pressing issue," said Andrée-Lise Méthot, Founder and Managing Partner, Cycle Capital Management. 

"Since it was selected for our Ecofuel Accelerator, the company has overcome major challenges. We are very proud to continue our collaboration with the management team and key strategic industrial partners as Polystyvert has just entered the commercial scale-up phase.”