PureCycle Provides Progress Update on Ironton, Ohio Flagship Operations

PureCycle is just "weeks" out from commercial production at its flagship purification facility in Ironton, Ohio, the company announced during a corporate update call.

CEO Dustin Olson announced the final systems to reach mechanical completion are expected to be complete by early April, undeterred by delays. The Orlando-based plastics recycler further noted it closed a "mutually-agreeable" limited waiver with its bondholders that allowed it to shift milestone dates.

"Equally important, we secured a $150 million revolving line of credit to be available for general working capital purposes," said Larry Somma, PureCycle CFO. "We are also in various stages related to additional capital raises in order to further strengthen our balance sheet.  As we have noted previously, our goal is to maintain financial flexibility and optionality with the capital we raise prior to Ironton being fully operational.  The interest in our mission is very strong and once Ironton is operational, we will endeavor to raise the capital necessary to fund Phase 1 of our Augusta project at an attractive cost of capital for the benefit of all stakeholders."

"We expect to be on track for commercial production of pellets and be in a position to ramp-up production by the end of April," he added. "The whole company has worked hard to overcome various challenges during the last four months, and like many of you who have followed our progress, we cannot wait to start up operations at Ironton."

PureCycle closed a $150 million revolving line of credit and stated it is "in active dialogue related to other forms of pre-Ironton capital."

"This requirement was achieved on March 15 with the closing of a $150 million revolving line of credit with Sylebra Capital," Somma commented. "PureCycle s fortunate to have a partner like Sylebra that has significant resources committed to ensuring the success of the company. Yesterday Pureycle transferred $37.6 million to bondholder accounts and will send the remaining $50 million in the coming days."

The company touted its patented process as "designed to transform polypropylene plastic waste (designated as No. 5 plastic) into a continuously renewable resource." PureCycle selected engineered materials distributor Formerra to scale the U.S. distribution of its pellets, which it said is an adequate replacement for virgin materials. 

"We have been developing convincing data that supports superior performance of our resin," Olson said. "The four main characteristics of tests for our UPR resin: our processability,strength, low odor and colorless attributes. Using various additive packages, we can offer the market multiple product grades of varying melt flow and strength characteristics without manipulation of feedstock input. With the help of our partners, we can now show odor analytics which indicates a four-fold improvement to food-grade recycling and a two-fold improvement relative to virgin PP. This creates the opportunity for PureCycle's PP to potentially replace virgin PP."

Cathy Dodd, Formerra CEO, commented that "addressing the world's most pressing sustainability challenges is a responsibility we all share. We are excited to bring PureCycle resin to our expansive materials lineup, because this material aligns with our strengths - ingenuity, technical expertise, and sustainable growth."

PureCycle also announced the development of a new facility at the port of Antwerp in Belgium with a capacity of up to 520 million pounds. With a financing plan "in progress" involving targeted circular project grants, operations are expected to bring in early 2026.

"Discussions involving feedstock and offtake agreements have been very positive with LOI (letter of intent) signs that represent a feedstock oversubscription at 125 percent and offtake nearly sold out at 75 percent," Olson stated.

Progress has been achieved regarding PureCycle's joint venture agreement with Mitsui & Co. The companies signed an agreement outlining the expected key terms of their jount venture and narrowed down site selection for a facility to two locations in Japan. PureCycle noted its selection process as particularly based on high population density to develop multiple lines. 

In South Korea, the company and SK Geocentric placed a focus on operations and finance "to establish and manage the development project budget and financing strategy."

Olson concluded: "Our strong global partnerships and progress in Europe and Asia should give the industry competence in our technology, the demand for our product and the PureCycle team. Each partner has offered to provide whatever support that we need to help close the Ironton project and prove the scalability."