PureCycle and Landbell Group Collaborate to Advance Polypropylene Plastic Recycling in Europe
Rhea-AI Summary
PureCycle Technologies (Nasdaq:PCT) has announced a strategic collaboration with Landbell Group to enhance polypropylene (PP) plastic recycling across Europe. PureCycle Belgium will leverage its dissolution recycling technology and experience from its Ironton, Ohio facility to process PP waste into high-purity recyclate.
The partnership, initiated in January 2024, will utilize Landbell's expertise in plastic collection and sorting across Europe. Landbell will supply PP waste from household collections as feedstock for PureCycle's planned Antwerp facility, which is expected to have an annual capacity of 59,000 tonnes. This collaboration aims to redirect thermoplastic polymer commonly used in packaging towards high-quality recycling.
PureCycle's PureFive™ recyclate, which can be recycled multiple times, serves as a drop-in replacement for virgin PP and is already being used commercially in the USA. The Ironton facility is expected to reach an annual capacity of 48,600 tonnes when fully operational.
Positive
- Expansion into European market with new 59,000-tonne capacity facility in Antwerp
- Strategic partnership securing feedstock supply through Landbell Group's collection network
- Commercial validation with PureFive™ recyclate already being used in US applications
- Technology enables multiple recycling cycles of PP plastic, supporting circular economy
Negative
- Ironton facility not yet fully operational
- Antwerp facility still in construction phase with uncertain timeline
- Dependent on third-party waste collection and sorting capabilities
Insights
This PureCycle-Landbell collaboration represents a strategically significant development in European polypropylene recycling infrastructure. The partnership addresses two critical challenges in plastic circularity: consistent feedstock sourcing and output quality. By combining Landbell's extensive collection network across 40+ producer responsibility organizations with PureCycle's dissolution technology, they're creating an integrated supply chain for high-value PP recycling.
The planned Antwerp facility's 59,000-tonne annual capacity exceeds PureCycle's Ohio operation (48,600 tonnes), signaling substantial confidence in European demand for premium recycled PP. What makes this partnership particularly well-timed is its alignment with the PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) requirements, which impose increasingly stringent recycled content mandates on European manufacturers.
PureCycle's technology produces a recyclate that functions as a drop-in replacement for virgin PP - crucial for high-value applications where conventional recycled PP typically falls short on performance. This addresses the quality gap that has historically closed-loop recycling for polypropylene, particularly in food-contact and demanding applications.
The focus on polypropylene is especially valuable as it represents approximately 20-25% of European plastic packaging but has lagged behind PET in recycling infrastructure development. This partnership potentially transforms what has been a challenging-to-recycle material stream into a circular resource, elevating it from downcycling to true materials circularity.
This collaboration enhances PureCycle's European market entry strategy by securing both feedstock supply and regulatory positioning - two critical success factors for recycling operations. The partnership with Landbell Group, a well-established operator in European waste management, significantly de-risks PCT's expansion by leveraging existing collection infrastructure rather than building from scratch.
While financial terms remain undisclosed, this agreement represents meaningful progress in PureCycle's commercialization journey. The Antwerp facility represents PureCycle's first European footprint with 59,000 tonnes of planned capacity, approximately 21% larger than their flagship Ohio plant. This suggests management anticipates strong European demand, likely driven by regulatory tailwinds from the PPWR.
Investors should note this appears to be a preliminary collaboration rather than a binding offtake agreement with financial commitments. The partnership began in January 2024 but doesn't specify construction timelines or capital requirements for the Belgian facility. Given PCT's current $1.34B market cap and pre-commercial status for its flagship plant, securing partnerships that address feedstock risk is strategically sound.
The absence of financial projections or capacity utilization estimates limits assessment of near-term revenue impact. However, this partnership structurally improves PCT's European market positioning by securing quality feedstock - typically the most challenging aspect of recycling economics. The collaboration creates a vertically integrated solution combining Landbell's collection expertise with PCT's processing technology, potentially enabling premium pricing for their high-purity recycled PP in European markets with increasingly stringent recycled content mandates.
ORLANDO, FL / ACCESS Newswire / March 31, 2025 / PureCycle Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:PCT), a U.S.-based company revolutionizing plastic recycling, today, announced a collaboration with Landbell Group, a global operator of morethan 40 producer responsibility organizations (PROs) and a leading provider of closed-loop recycling solutions. The collaboration will help to prioritize and expand upcycling of polypropylene (PP) waste into high-purity, recycled PP that can be used in high-value and demanding applications across Europe.
PureCycle Belgium will be using its innovative form of dissolution recycling and experience from PureCycle's flagship plant in Ironton, Ohio, USA, which is expected to have an annual capacity of 48,600 tonnes once fully operational. PureCycle transforms polypropylene plastic into a versatile, replenishable resource through a unique purification process, involving multiple steps. The result is a PP-recyclate that can serve as a drop-in replacement to virgin PP. PureCycle's PureFive™ recyclate can be recycled and reused multiple times and is already being used in commercial applications in the USA.
In January 2024, PureCycle Belgium and Landbell Group began working toward enabling the advanced recycling of PP waste in Europe. As part of this collaboration, Landbell Group will use its expertise in the collection, sorting and processing of plastics in several European countries. Landbell will supply the PP waste from its household collections as feedstock for PureCycle's first European PP recycling plant in Antwerp, Belgium, with an expected annual capacity of 59,000 tonnes once constructed and operating.
PureCycle's VP of European and Asia Pacific Operations Wiebe Schipper said "Our collaboration with Landbell Group represents a significant step to advance plastic circularity in Europe. We're proud to collaborate with another sustainably minded company that is committed to reducing plastic waste and creating a circular economy for plastics." Schipper added, "PureCycle is looking forward to collaborating with the Landbell Group as we work to make dissolution recycling more widely available throughout the region."
Through this partnership with PureCycle, Landbell Group will ensure that the thermoplastic polymer which is widely used in the packaging industry, from food and beverage packaging to industrial and consumer goods packaging, is redirected towards high quality recycling. In this way, Landbell Group strengthens its commitment to the development of innovative recycling solutions to enable a circular economy.
Uwe Echteler, COO of Landbell Group said, "By combining the innovative and robust approaches of PureCycle Technologies and Landbell Group in Europe, we will drive higher recycling rates and high-quality recycled PP, empowering producers to close the loop and to fulfill their new obligations from the PPWR."
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About PureCycle Technologies
PureCycle Technologies LLC., a subsidiary of PureCycle Technologies, Inc., holds a global license for the only patented solvent-driven purification recycling technology, developed by The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), that is designed to transform polypropylene plastic waste (designated as No. 5 plastic) into a continuously renewable resource. The unique purification process removes color, odor, and other impurities from No. 5 plastic waste resulting in an ultra-pure recycled (UPR) plastic that can be recycled and reused multiple times, changing our relationship with plastic. www.purecycle.com
PureCycle Contact
Christian Bruey
cbruey@purecycle.com
Investor Relations Contact
Eric DeNatale
edenatale@purecycle.com
About Landbell Group
Landbell Group is a leading provider of environmental and chemical compliance solutions with local expertise and global presence. Established as a producer responsibility organisation (PRO) for packaging in Germany in 1995, the Group has since evolved into a platform for extended producer responsibility (EPR) worldwide.
Landbell Group's comprehensive core services - compliance, consulting and software - help companies to meet their global EPR obligations. The Group's PROs have collected more than 10 million tonnes of waste batteries, electronics and packaging, and are now starting to collect textiles. Its consulting companies provide global consultancy for EPR, chemical compliance and takeback, and its software business develops digital tools for environmental and chemical compliance.
In 2014, Landbell Group also launched the Green Alley Award, which is presented every year to innovative startups in the environmental sector.
The circular economy is crucial for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - and EPR is one of the key elements for building a circular economy. Landbell Group is delivering EPR services worldwide to create a more sustainable future.
For more information, please visit: www.landbell-group.com
Landbell Group Contact
Dr. Raffaela David
Head of Marketing and PR
r.david@landbellgroup.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the continued execution of PureCycle's business plan, the expected timing of commercial sales, the commercialization of Ironton operations, the expected increase in production of the Ironton operations, the planned compounding operations, the sourcing of materials, and planned future updates. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or PureCycle's future financial or operating performance and may refer to projections and forecasts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by future or conditional words such as "plan," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "outlook," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "continue," "could," "may," "might," "possible," "potential," "predict," "should," "would" and other similar words and expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions), but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.
The forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of PureCycle's management and are inherently subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances and their potential effects and speak only as of the date of this press release. There can be no assurance that future developments will be those that have been anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in each of PureCycle's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and PureCycle's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for various quarterly periods, those discussed and identified in other public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission by PureCycle and the following: PCT's ability to obtain funding for its operations and future growth and to continue as a going concern; PCT's ability to meet, and to continue to meet, applicable regulatory requirements for the use of PCT's ultra-pure recycled ("UPR") resin in food grade applications (including in the United States, Europe, Asia and other future international locations); PCT's ability to comply on an ongoing basis with the numerous regulatory requirements applicable to the UPR resin and PCT's facilities (including in the United States, Europe, Asia and other future international locations); expectations and changes regarding PCT's strategies and future financial performance, including its future business plans, expansion plans or objectives, prospective performance and opportunities and competitors, revenues, products and services, pricing, operating expenses, market trends, liquidity, cash flows and uses of cash, capital expenditures, and PCT's ability to invest in growth initiatives; the ability of PCT's first commercial-scale recycling facility in Lawrence County, Ohio (the "Ironton Facility") to be appropriately certified by Leidos, following certain performance and other tests, and commence full-scale commercial operations in a timely and cost-effective manner or at all; PCT's ability to meet, and to continue to meet, the requirements imposed upon it and its subsidiaries by the funding for its operations, including the funding for the Ironton Facility; PCT's ability to minimize or eliminate the many hazards and operational risks at its manufacturing facilities that can result in potential injury to individuals, disrupt its business (including interruptions or disruptions in operations at its facilities), and subject PCT to liability and increased costs; PCT's ability to complete the necessary funding with respect to, and complete the construction of, (i) its first U.S. multi-line facility, located in Augusta, Georgia, and (ii) its first commercial-scale European plant located in Antwerp, Belgium, in a timely and cost-effective manner; PCT's ability to procure, sort and process polypropylene plastic waste at its planned plastic waste prep facilities; PCT's ability to maintain exclusivity under the Procter & Gamble Company license; the implementation, market acceptance and success of PCT's business model and growth strategy; the success or profitability of PCT's offtake arrangements; the ability to source feedstock with a high polypropylene content at a reasonable cost; PCT's future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash; developments and projections relating to PCT's competitors and industry; the outcome of any legal or regulatory proceedings to which PCT is, or may become, a party including the securities class action and putative class action cases; geopolitical risk and changes in applicable laws or regulations; the possibility that PCT may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors, including interest rates, availability of capital, economic cycles, and other macro-economic impacts; turnover in employees and increases in employee-related costs; changes in the prices and availability of labor (including labor shortages), transportation and materials, including inflation, supply chain conditions and its related impact on energy and raw materials, and PCT's ability to obtain them in a timely and cost-effective manner; any business disruptions due to political or economic instability, pandemics, armed hostilities (including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East); the potential impact of climate change on PCT, including physical and transition risks, higher regulatory and compliance costs, reputational risks, and availability of capital on attractive terms; and operational risk.
SOURCE: PureCycle Technologies
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
FAQ
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