Agilyx new technology safely disposes of flame retardant insulation that could not be recycled in the past

The Norwegian Agilyx AS wholly owned subsidiary of advanced recycling company Agilyx Corporation, today announced that they have achieved a major milestone in their collaboration with a strategic technology partner that will enable the recycling of PS laden with brominated flame retardants into high-purity styrene Monomers for direct use in downstream products including PS, EPS, ABS, SBR, SAN and unsaturated polyester resins
.

PS containing brominated flame retardants is an environmental concern
.
For many years, the primary flame retardant used in EPS and XPX insulation was hexabromocyclododecane
.
However, since 2016, the EU has banned the substance in products with concentrations above 100 mg/kg
.
This is covered by EU Regulation (EC) No 850/2004 on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which requires that waste POPs such as HBCD must be is destroyed or irreversibly transformed” for disposal or recycling
.
The current way to achieve this is mainly through thermal incineration or energy recovery, although a new process is currently being used at a demonstration plant in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, which aims to demonstrate the feasibility of mechanically recycling this type of waste
.

According to Agilyx, its depolymerization process also opens the door to the successful recycling of construction foams and insulation
.
After depolymerization, styrene monomer can be put back into service to produce new materials of comparable quality to those produced by any other styrene monomer
.
These materials can be used in any application from building materials to food containers
.

Tim Stedman, CEO of Agilyx, said: “The ability to recycle flame retardant PS will not only make this contaminated material part of a sustainable recycling value chain, but it will also open up new markets
that were previously closed due to contamination from these materials.
An exciting step forward in our mission to make all plastics circular, even the worst and contaminated plastics
.
"