A Quebec company using essential oils to prepare polystyrene foam for recycling has raised millions of dollars to build a bigger plant.
Montreal-based Polystyvert has announced it will use roughly $3.77 million in funding to build a processing facility capable of handling greater volumes of expanded polystyrene (EPS). The company provides generators of EPS with on-site collection containers that treat and dissolve the material with a mix of essential oils.
Once filled with about 660 pounds of dissolved EPS, the containers, known as concentrators, are collected by Polystyvert and the blend is processed by the company using its proprietary technology. The technology removes the PS for recycling into a range of products, including food packaging, and distills the oils for reuse.
The dissolving approach reduces EPS’ size by about 95 percent, improving EPS recycling economics, according to the Polystyvert press release.
Dozens of Montreal-area companies currently use the technology. Polystyvert has also established two public EPS drop-offs in the Quebec towns of Granby and Waterloo.
The company’s new plant is slated to open this fall. Polystyvert currently has a pilot plant up and running in Montreal.
“With this financing, not only can we begin acquiring the equipment we need to grow, but it also takes us one step closer to our ultimate goal of making polystyrene recycling accessible all across Quebec, Canada, and eventually the world,” Solenne Brouard Gaillot, company president, stated in the press release.
