Toyo Styrene begins construction phase of chemical recycling facility in Japan

Agilyx, Tigard, Oregon, and Toyo Styrene Co. Ltd., an affiliate of Denka Co. Ltd., Nippon Steel Chemical & Material Co. Ltd. and Daicel Co. Ltd., have announced that the construction phase has begun on a 10-ton-per-day chemical recycling facility in Japan that uses depolymerization technology from Agilyx.  

The recycling plant will convert postuse polystyrene (PS) into a styrene monomer that will be purified using Toyo Styrene’s proprietary purification process. Styrene monomer produced from this process can then be converted into PS products with a significantly lower carbon footprint than similar products made with virgin monomer, according to a news release from Agilyx.

“As the first step toward the circular economy, we will construct a chemical recycling plant for this project, collect postindustrial materials for the time being and start a chemical recycling business,” Sanshiro Matsushita, president of Toyo Styrene, says. "Furthermore, in order to build a carbon-free society through chemical recycling in Japan, we are also planning to participate in a platform that integrates citizens, businesses and local government, which is being undertaken by Ichihara City, Chiba prefecture.”   

“The decision to move into the final stages of this project is a big accomplishment for the members of Agilyx and Toyo Styrene, who have worked tirelessly to bring us to this point,” says Tim Stedman, CEO of Agilyx. “We are very proud of their efforts and excited for the opportunity to bring our proven advanced recycling technology into the Asian markets to help improve the availability of recycled plastic content and increase global plastic recycling through circular pathways.”

Agilyx announced its partnership with Toyo Styrene in April 2020. In December of that year, the companies announced they were 30 percent complete with the final phase of developing the front-end loading design to deploy Agilyx's technology.