Following the Advanced Recycling Conference held in Cologne, Germany, plastics manufacturing company Pyrowave announced it has reached what it claims is a breakthrough for the future of global plastic recycling, and in the fight against climate change.
Recycling
Pyrowave technology has successfully passed Michelin Group's quality tests with the first 99.8% pure recycled styrene monomer produced from polystyrene waste.
Recycled monomer can now be integrated into industrial elastomer batches. For the first time, a finished product will incorporate fully traceable and segregated recycled styrene, where all the styrene will be physically present in the product rather than a credit-based content.
A container with approximately 3 tons of recycled styrene has left Montreal for the Michelin plant in France. Following years of testing, Pyrowave claim Michelin will be able to manufacture batches of industrial styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) products with Pyrowave recycled styrene, which would represent over 1,000 passenger car tires.
Jocelyn Doucet, CEO of Pyrowave said: "The industry has forever been dreaming of a circular economy with recycled, traceable and segregated content. Pyrowave now demonstrates that it is possible through its technology. This achievement confirms once and for all that we can implement a 100% traceable and controlled supply chain in polystyrene recycling. We can now provide recycled content to meet consumer expectations: products can now be made entirely from recycled material, without dilution or degradation. Pyrowave is defining a new standard in plastic recycling and is leading the way toward reaching environmental goals".