Polystyvert to open full-scale commercial plant in Greater Montreal

Montreal-based polystyrene (PS) recycler Polystyvert earlier this month announced a $40 million investment in the construction of its first full-scale commercial plant to produce recycled PS in Greater Montreal.

According to Polystyvert, the facility will recycled 9,000 tons of postconsumer and postindustrial PS scrap annually—equivalent to 15 percent of PS landfilled in Quebec each year. The company also says its raw materials supply is ensured as well as the sale of its recycled PS.

“After several successful development phases, our technology has reached maturity,” Polystyvert President Nathalie Morin says. “We can now recycle contaminated waste with no other outlet than landfill sites. This plant is the first of many that can be built worldwide by replicating what will be done in Greater Montreal, thereby multiplying the economic and environmental benefits of the project.”

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Polystyvert says its patented technology addresses an essential need in waste management, namely the ability to recycle material considered difficult to recycle, and adds that through advanced purification, it now is possible to remove contaminants and produce high-quality plastic that exhibits physical and chemical characteristics to virgin resin.

The company uses its dissolution technology to process PS scrap. The method takes the plastic scrap in its solid form and dissolves it using a solvent. Once dissolved, the process can mechanically and chemically separate contaminants and additives before finally separating the original polymer from the solvent. Polystyvert’s purification technology can eliminate a wide range of hard-to-remove contaminants, like pigments and brominated flame-retardants, the company says.

“The full-scale plant we are announcing today marks the initiation of our technology’s global commercialization through licensing, a strategic move that will exponentially multiply the economic benefits of our project,” Morin says. “We are already witnessing significant interest from key industry players eager to acquire licenses, paving the way for rapid company growth through the cloning of our first full-scale plant.”

In addition to it’s PS recycling plant, Polystyvert also has established a new pilot plant at its research and development center in east Montreal and has expanded its process and intellectual property to acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a thermoplastic polymer widely used in automotive, electronics and toy industries.

The company says it garnered financial support from a renowned global partner and has completed the initial stages of adapting its technology. Polystyvert is commencing construction on a $3 million site which it says will be a significant step toward large-scale ABS recycling.

“Our research and development team has made considerable progress in adapting the technology to a type of plastic that is widely used in numerous applications in our daily lives,” Morin says. “The installation of the ABS pilot plant … marks a pivotal development state in a new era of recycling for this plastic, which is currently poorly recycled but indispensable in its use.

“We are pleased to continue our growth in the east of Montreal.”