AmSty and Agilyx Announce Joint Venture for Polystyrene Recycling

AmSty and Agilyx have signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture that will assume operations of Agilyx’s first-in-kind polystyrene recycling facility in Tigard, Ore.

The process converts used polystyrene products back into their original liquid form, styrene monomer. Fresh polystyrene products can then be made without degrading quality or value. This form of circular recycling is known as the PolyUsable process.

Last August, AmSty and Agilyx announced an offtake agreement to process recycled styrene monomer from Agilyx’s Tigard facility at AmSty’s styrene monomer plant in St. James, La.

“We are excited to work with Agilyx, a leading developer of recycling technologies for plastics, as we continue to improve our PolyUsable process assuring polystyrene remains a viable and growing component of the circular economy,” said Brad Crocker, president and CEO of AmSty, in a statement.

AmSty is an integrated producer of polystyrene and styrene monomer, offering solutions and services to customers in a variety of markets throughout the Americas. The company is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, and is a member of the American Chemistry Council and its Responsible Care initiative.

Agilyx is an environmental technology and development company located in Tigard that extracts value from difficult-to-recycle mixed waste plastic streams. The company developed a full-circle system capable of recycling post-consumer polystyrene (packaging materials, foam cups, etc.) into styrene monomer, which is then used to make new polystyrene equal in quality and composition to the original product. The company has also commercialized a technology that converts mixed plastics to high-quality VGO crude.