As corporations globally try to reduce their environmental footprint, Meta is signing an agreement with MacroCycle Technologies, a polymer manufacturing company.
Last week, MacroCycle announced that they will be selling environmental attribute certificates (EACs) to Meta, which will use them to address emissions from plastics in its supply chain. The payment for these certificates will fund the buildout of MacroCycle’s first commercial plant in the Southwestern U.S. The plant will produce recycled PET polymer that will be third-party verified. Recycled PET is a lightweight plastic often used in packaging and to create more sustainable polyester textiles. The MacroCycle plant is anticipated to produce 5,000 tonnes (about 5,500 U.S. short tons) of recycled PET annually.
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MacroCycle was founded by Stwart Peña Feliz and Jan-Georg Rosenboom in 2023 out of MIT and is currently headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. The company developed a process it calls SolvoGenesis, which uses solvents to turn textile and packaging waste into virgin-quality PET. This process handles mixed, blended, and contaminated materials much better than mechanical recycling. The company states that SolvoGenesis also requires 80 percent less energy that normal PET production.
MacroCycle has developed a textile product called MacroTex, which is a 100 percent polyester made entirely from upcycled clothing. SolvoGenesis turns textile waste into virgin-grade resin, which can then be made into low-cost yarn and fabric. At the same time, cotton and elastane can be preserved and valorized. The cost savings in this process come from the fact that SolvoGenesis does not entail as complete a breakdown of PET as other chemical processes.
Peña Feliz, co-founder and CEO of MacroCycle Technologies, said, “Most recycling forces a trade-off: Mechanical processes are cheap but degrade the material with every cycle and struggle with complex waste streams. Chemical processes that break PET all the way down to its monomers are energy-hungry and expensive.” He continued, “SolvoGenesis sidesteps the tradeoff. We dissolve and purify PET while keeping the polymer chain intact, which is why we can take the mixed, blended, and contaminated waste that other processes reject and still come out with virgin-quality material at a fraction of the energy.”
In a press release, MacroCycle stated that the U.S. imports over 40 percent of virgin PET and 20 percent of recycled PET—meanwhile domestic rPET capacity is shrinking. MacroCycle claims that by building this plant, they will help to build a more domestic and resilient supply chain. MacroCycle received early support from the Volta Circle, the family office of the founders and owners of one of the largest PET producers in the world.
Meta has set a goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2030. “Reaching net zero means advancing lower-carbon solutions across our supply chain and in the materials we use,” said Devon Lake, head of net zero strategy at Meta. “We have been working to address emissions across our supply chain on materials like cement and steel, and our early procurement of materials from these sectors helped pave the way for the maturing markets we see now. We hope this transaction with MacroCycle will have a similar outcome in the plastics market.”
