AmSty, Encina sign offtake agreement for polystyrene feedstocks

Americas Styrenics (AmSty), Houston, as signed a memorandum of understanding with The Woodlands, Texas-based Encina Development Group that enables AmSty to purchase up to 250,000 tons per year of circular feedstocks from Encina’s facilities. Encina produces circular materials using advanced recycling technology that works at the molecular level.

AmSty also has signed a formal long-term offtake agreement for the purchase of circular feedstocks from Encina’s first U.S. commercial plant in Point Township, Pennsylvania, which is expected to begin production in early 2025. These circular feedstocks will then be available for purchase as recycled-content credits, based on the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC Plus) mass-balance system.

AmSty has committed to ensure that all its polystyrene (PS) products designed for food packaging applications will contain at least 30 percent recycled content by 2030, according to a news release from AmSty.

“This new collaboration is vital to helping AmSty meet that goal and demonstrates our total commitment to a sustainable future across all of our market segments,” says Randy Pogue, AmSty president and CEO.? 

Tim Barnette, vice president of polymers and sustainability at AmSty, says this new agreement with Encina allows companies across AmSty’s portfolio to offer recyclable, sustainable products.

“Now is the time for market leaders to join forces with us to commit to introducing circular polystyrene products at scale,” Barnette says. “We have been working diligently toward this moment and are now ready to move forward commercializing PolyRenew credits in a big way.”

Encina plans to continue to build commercial plants across the U.S. As the company continues to bring more facilities online, AmSty says it plans to enter into additional offtake agreements to purchase circular feedstocks from those facilities. 

According to AmSty, both companies have received the ISCC Plus designation, which ensures the sustainability characteristics claimed by the companies are credibly validated.

“We’re excited to be working with AmSty, a company that shares our vision of getting to a world where nothing is wasted,” says David Roesser, chief executive officer of Encina. “Increasingly, customers are demanding sustainable practices across the product supply chain and life cycle. The feedstocks we manufacture reduce waste, offset the need to produce virgin materials and help manufacturers achieve carbon neutral goals as we transition to a circular economy.”?