US polyolefin giant LyondellBasell (LYB, Houston, Texas; www.lyondellbasell.com) has become a founding member of Cyclyx (Portsmouth, New Hampshire / USA; www.cyclyx.com), a consortium-based post-use plastic feedstock management company seeking to increase the recycling rate of plastics from 10% to 90%. Additionally, Ganesh Nagarajan, associate director, polymers business, development and projects at LyondellBasell has become part of Cyclyx’s executive advisory board.

In July 2021, petrochemical firm Chevron Phillips Chemical (The Woodlands, Texas; www.cpchem.com) had also joined Cyclyx as a founding member, with Ron Abbott, Chevron Phillips’ sustainability technology manager, serving on Cyclyx’s executive advisory board.

Cyclyx is a subsidiary of US chemical recycler Agilyx (Tigard, Oregon; www.agilyx.com) and was formed through a joint venture with ExxonMobil (see Plasteurope.com of 05.03.2021). It was created to be an industry consortium comprised of partners across the polymer recycling value chain to develop closed-loop advanced reclaim solutions for mixed plastics waste. The company has established partnerships in diverse sectors including petrochemical, waste and recycling, retail, brand owners and municipalities.

LyondellBasell recently pledged that it would produce and market 2m t of recycled and renewable-based polymers annually by 2030 (see Plasteurope.com of 11.05.2021), in an effort to help advance a circular economy for post-use plastics with investments in recycling technologies and infrastructure along with end markets for recycled products.