Page 68 - Plastics News Issue June 2025
P. 68
PRODUCT NEWS
Circular Plastics From
Cyclic Molecules
ical recycling is well established
and effective at processing clear
bottle flake, other feed streams
are more challenging. “We’re not
going after those clear flakes,
we’re going after the bad stuff,
stuff the mechanical recyclers
don’t want. And we are going af-
ter the emerging supply of tex-
tile waste,” Rosenboom says.
Textile waste is not widely re-
cycled, mostly ending up in a
he molecular structure of polyesters en- landfill or incinerator in the Unit-
ables a wide spectrum of recycling ap- ed States, so the polyester textile waste that is
Tproaches, both mechanical and chemi- widely available is postindustrial. But that could
cal. Somewhere in the middle ground between change. In 2022, Massachusetts enacted a law
solvent-based extraction approaches and ad- which makes it illegal to dispose of textiles in
vanced recycling technologies that break down trash.
molecules all the way back to the monomer lev- “I think collection of textiles will emerge, and
el, sits a company called Macrocycle.
there are folks looking at that waste stream
Macrocycle, founded by CEO Stwart Peña Fe- coming online and becoming viable, but they
liz and CTO Jan-Georg Rosenboom, is develop- need to figure out how to upgrade the poly-
ing a process based on the phenomenon of ring mer quality and how to remove the impurities
opening polymerization. that are present,” Rosenboom says. Macrocycle
is working with its partner Helpsy, a waste col-
The process uses specialized solvents, catalyst lector that brings in textile waste from various
systems and thermodynamics to convert poly- brands. Macrocycle analyzes the waste for con-
mer molecules into macrocyclic oligomers, se- taminants before and after recycling to confirm
lectively extract them and then upgrade them to its process removes them.
a linear PET structure.
According to Rosenboom, the process is inher-
Macrocycle is looking at both packaging waste ently purifying, such that even if a feedstock
and textile waste as feedstock materials, and is contains unwanted or nonintentionally added
processing both at its pilot facility. While mechan- substances (NIAS), these are removed by the
68 PLASTICS NEWS June 2025
