PureCycle Technologies (www.purecycletech.com) has partnered with consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G, Cincinnati, Ohio / USA; www.pg.com) to build a US plant in Lawrence County, Ohio, that will restore used PP plastic to "virgin-like" quality using a P&G-patented technology. PureCycle intends to implement the process at the Ironton (Hanging Rock) site on the Ohio River.

Starting January 2018, a feedstock evaluation unit will be operating, and continuing operations after the full-scale plant opens in 2020. The new plant will enable consumers to purchase more products made from recycled plastic. PureCycle is a portfolio company of Innventure (Chicago, Illinois / USA; www.innventure.com).

Little is known about the process but, according to P&G, it removes contaminants as well as odour and colour from used plastics to produce high-quality recycled plastic. The company says the technology has the capacity "to revolutionise the plastics recycling industry." It could be a physicochemical solution procedure or chemical process with remonomerisation. The location would also fit in with this since there is a petrochemical tradition in Ironton, including the production of styrene polymers.

P&G has implemented packaging goals for 2020 that aim to double the amount of recycled resin used in plastic packaging and ensure that 90% of packaging material is either recyclable or programs are in place to recycle it.

At the World Economic Forum on 19 January 2017, P&G's hair care division Head & Shoulders said it will partner with recycling experts TerraCycle (Perivale / UK; www.terracycle.co.uk) and Suez (Paris / France; www.suez-environnement.com) and the Austrian packaging manufacturer Alpla (Hard; www.alpla.com) to develop the production of a recyclable shampoo bottle made from up to 25% post-consumer recycled plastic that is derived from beach waste. In addition, P&G announced that by end of 2018, more than half a billion bottles per year will include up to 25% post-consumer recycled plastic in Europe.