ORLANDO, Fla., June 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PureCycle Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCT), today announced the successful production and trial evaluation of white, cavitated biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) film in collaboration with Innovia Films, a leading material science pioneer and global manufacturer of packaging, graphics and label films. The film was produced using PureCycle's PureFive Choice™ resin, and the film contains more than 40% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content. This film will be marketed to brand owners interested in introducing recycled content to their own white, cavitated BOPP applications.
White, cavitated BOPP film is a critical material in some of the world's most recognizable consumer packaging formats. Its unique opacity, light weight, and printability make it the material of choice for many food-contact applications, including candy wrappers, ice cream novelty wrappers, snack packaging and roll-fed labeling. The film's cavitated structure delivers a paper-like feel and ideal print surface while maintaining the mechanical performance and moisture barrier essential for food-contact applications. The successful production of this film type using PureFive® resin marks a significant commercial expansion of what is possible with post-consumer recycled polypropylene in demanding flexible packaging applications.
The achievement comes at a pivotal moment for the global packaging industry. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation is reshaping procurement decisions for flexible packaging converters and brand owners worldwide. In the United States, California's SB 54 mandates a virgin plastic reduction, with compliance timelines that are already driving reformulation activity across the supply chain. In Europe, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) similarly expands mandatory recycled content targets for plastic packaging beginning in 2030, with particular urgency for film and flexible formats that have historically lacked sufficient and viable PCR supply. As one of the few commercially available sources of food-contact-compliant, recycled polypropylene, PureCycle's PureFive® resin is uniquely positioned to help converters and brand owners meet these regulatory requirements without sacrificing performance or processability.
“This film produced with PureFive® resin represents a major milestone and shift in the sustainability of flexible packaging,” said Innovia Films Market Manager, Chris Freshwater. “Our research and development specialists are always looking to improve the sustainability of our products. PureCycle’s dissolution recycling technology is a real gamechanger. Not only are we introducing post-consumer recycled content to our films, but we’re doing so with an energy-saving recycling technology.”
Beyond regulatory compliance, demand for PCR-content flexible packaging is being driven by major consumer goods companies’ voluntary commitment to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's New Plastics Economy Global Commitment. Hundreds of brand owners have pledged to incorporate recycled content, eliminate unnecessary plastics, and advance circularity across their packaging portfolios. White, cavitated BOPP film, which is used extensively in confectionery and snack formats by global food brands, has remained one of the more challenging areas in which to incorporate meaningful recycled content. The success of this collaboration directly addresses that gap, providing brand owners with a credible, commercially scalable path toward meeting their Ellen MacArthur Foundation pledges in this packaging format.
“The successful production of white, cavitated BOPP film is a major step forward for PureCycle and for the flexible packaging industry. This film can be found all over your grocery store, whether it’s in the candy aisle, an ice cream freezer or on snack shelves,” said Pete Dias, PureCycle Senior Director of Market, Product, and Application Development. “Brand owners have been searching for a way to incorporate certified recycled content without compromising performance or appearance. By working with Innovia, we have demonstrated that our PureFive® resin for film is up to that challenge and strengthens our conviction that PureCycle can serve as a foundational PCR supplier for the global flexible packaging market.”
Innovia conducted comprehensive process evaluations throughout the trial, assessing resin behavior across the full cavitated BOPP production sequence. During the trial process, the PureFive Choice™ resin yielded comparable processing results to the virgin polypropylene resins used in commercial films today. Testing showed that the films made using varying percentages of PureFive Choice™ resin delivered comparable mechanical, barrier and sealing properties to films made with virgin PP resin, which are crucial for maintaining product integrity and packaging line performance.
The PureFive Choice™ resin grade used by Innovia is a specially formulated one-pellet solution engineered for film applications. PureCycle's PureFive Choice™ portfolio is designed to enable converters to incorporate post-consumer recycled polypropylene with the process certainty and application performance typically associated with virgin resin. All PureFive® resin is produced through PureCycle's patented dissolution recycling process, which removes color, odor, and contaminants from post-consumer polypropylene to yield a recycled resin suitable for the widest range of end uses.
PureCycle Contact
Christian Bruey
cbruey@purecycle.com
Investor Relations Contact
Eric DeNatale
edenatale@purecycle.com
About PureCycle Technologies
PureCycle Technologies LLC., a subsidiary of PureCycle Technologies, Inc., holds a global license for the only patented dissolution recycling technology, developed by The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), that is designed to transform polypropylene plastic waste (designated as #5 plastic) into a continuously renewable resource. The unique purification process removes color, odor, and other impurities from #5 plastic waste resulting in our PureFive® resin that can be recycled and reused multiple times, changing our relationship with plastic. For more information, visit www.purecycle.com.
About Innovia Films
Innovia Films is a global producer of polypropylene and polyolefin films that enable packaging, label and graphic films of tomorrow. Lightweight, functional, recyclable and with a low carbon footprint. We are the only material science company that can offer all technologies: Bubble, Stenter and Cast Polypropylene films.
Our labeling and packaging products and technologies are constantly being improved by our research and development specialists in order to provide sustainable and recyclable solutions for a better future.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the continued execution of PureCycle’s business plan, the expected results of tests and trials, the expected timing of commercial sales, and planned future updates. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or PureCycle’s future financial or operating performance and may refer to projections and forecasts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by future or conditional words such as “plan,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “outlook,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “project,” “continue,” “could,” “may,” “might,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “should,” “would” and other similar words and expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions), but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking.
The forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations of PureCycle’s management and are inherently subject to uncertainties and changes in circumstances and their potential effects and speak only as of the date of this press release. There can be no assurance that future developments will be those that have been anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in each of PureCycle’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 and PureCycle’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for various quarterly periods, those discussed and identified in other public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission by PureCycle and the following: PCTs’ ability to obtain funding for our operations, future capital requirements and future growth, and to continue as a going concern; PCT’s ability to meet, continue to meet, and comply on an ongoing basis with, the numerous regulatory requirements applicable to our PureFive® resin (as defined below) both generally and in food-grade applications and, more broadly, the operations of our facilities (including in the United States, Europe, Asia and other future international locations); expectations and changes regarding PCT’s strategies and future financial performance, including future business plans, expansion plans or objectives, prospective performance and opportunities and competitors, revenues, products and services, pricing, operating expenses, market trends, liquidity, cash flows and uses of cash, capital expenditures, and our ability to invest in growth initiatives, which could be impacted by significant changes to tariffs on foreign imports; the ability of PCT’s first commercial-scale recycling facility in Lawrence County, Ohio (the “Ironton Facility”) to be appropriately certified by Leidos (as defined below), following certain performance and other tests, and commence full-scale commercial operations in a timely and cost-effective manner, or at all; PCT’s ability to meet, and to continue to meet, the requirements imposed upon us and our subsidiaries by the funding for our operations, including the funding for the Ironton Facility and the Planned Facilities (as defined below); PCT’s ability to minimize or eliminate the many hazards and operational risks at our manufacturing facilities that can result in potential injury to individuals, disrupt our business, including interruptions or disruptions in operations at our facilities, and subject us to liability and increased costs; PCT’s ability to complete the necessary funding with respect to, and complete the construction of, the new polypropylene recycling facility in Thailand (the "Thailand Facility"), our first commercial-scale European plant located in Antwerp, Belgium (the "Belgium Facility"), and the purification facility to be built in Augusta, Georgia (the "Augusta Facility" and, together with the Thailand Facility and the Belgium Facility, the “Planned Facilities”) in a timely and cost-effective manner; PCT’s ability to procure, sort and process polypropylene plastic waste at our planned plastic waste prep facilities; PCT’s ability to maintain exclusivity under The Procter & Gamble Company license; the implementation, market acceptance and success of PCT’s business model and growth strategy, which includes our ability to bring a total of one billion pounds of installed polypropylene recycling capability online by 2030, and our ability to meet related construction, regulatory, and financing requirements; the ability to negotiate multi-year offtake agreements at appropriate margins to fund ongoing operations; the possibility that PCT may be adversely affected or potentially impacted by economic, business, and/or competitive factors, including interest rates, availability of capital, economic cycles, and other macro-economic impacts (such as tariffs); changes in the prices and availability of materials (such as steel and other materials needed for the construction of future Feed PreP and purification facilities), including those changes caused by inflation, tariffs and supply chain conditions, such as increased transportation costs, and our ability to obtain such materials in a timely and cost-effective manner; the ability to source feedstock with a high polypropylene content at a reasonable cost; the development of direct competitors in the recycled polypropylene segment that could impact the demand for PCT’s products; the outcome of any legal or regulatory proceedings to which PCT is, or may become, a party; geopolitical risk and changes in applicable laws or regulations; changes in the prices and availability of labor (including labor shortages), turnover in employees, and increases in employee-related costs; any business disruptions due to political or economic instability, pandemics, or armed hostilities (including the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine and instability in the Middle East); and operational risks associated with the ability to operate the Ironton Facility and the Planned Facilities, as and when operative, at nameplate capacity.
PCT undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.
Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of the assumptions made prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.
