CPChem invests in Closed Loop Partners' Circular Plastics Fund
Closed Loop Partners’ Circular Plastics Fund announced Tuesday the addition of two new investors–– Chevron Phillips Chemical (CPChem) and Charter Next Generation (CNG)––bringing the fund’s total capital to $45 M in an effort to support the development of plastics recycling and recovery infrastructure in North America.
The Circular Plastics Fund, managed by Closed Loop Partners, is focused on meeting the growing need to advance the recycling of rigid and flexible polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plastics in the United States and Canada. Global companies CPChem and CNG join existing investors Dow, LyondellBasell, NOVA Chemicals, SK geo centric Co. and Sealed Air.
“We saw the speed with which Closed Loop Partners’ Circular Plastics Fund put capital to work and determined that investing in the fund would help address our impact goals,” said Rick Wagner, Sustainability Policy & Program Manager at CPChem. “Collaboration will be a key component in advancing the transition to a circular economy. We look forward to joining the Circular Plastics Fund and furthering work to achieve a more sustainable future.”
In just its first year, the Circular Plastics Fund made significant investments in a range of solutions, including cutting-edge sortation technology and recycling infrastructure for plastics. Investments include:
SMR (formerly Sims Municipal Recycling), a leading recycling company managing several municipal recycling programs across the United States; Myplas, a new state-of-the-art 170,000-square-foot flexible film recycling plant in Minnesota;
Greyparrot, a leading AI waste analytics platform that improves transparency and automation for plastics sortation in recycling facilities; and additional debt financing to Waste Commission of Scott County, a solid waste district in Northeast Iowa.
“The Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund’s investments work to catalyze a systemic shift in plastics supply chains, enabling companies to transition from a linear to circular model that utilizes recycled materials,” said Jennifer Louie, Head of the Circular Plastics Fund at Closed Loop Partners. “Looking ahead, we have a strong pipeline of companies across the plastics recycling value chain and need more capital to invest in these critical solutions. This additional $10 M from our new investors will allow us to accelerate our capital deployment and reach our impact goals. We hope to see other companies with circular plastics goals join to help us achieve impact at scale.”
Closed Loop Partners launched the Circular Plastics Fund as part of its broader strategy to reduce, reuse and recycle plastics. The fund provides catalytic debt and equity financing, spurring additional mainstream investments into recycling solutions and infrastructure that can help address bottlenecks in the recycling system for PE, PP and flexible plastics––materials deemed critical to ensuring that the industry’s growing demand for high- quality recycled material will be met.
The current supply of recycled plastics meets only 6% of the demand for the most commonly used plastics in the United States and Canada. Increasing the recovery and circularity of plastics, alongside material reduction solutions, scalable reuse systems and innovative new materials, not only can prevent millions of tons of plastics from going to landfills or ending up in the natural environment but can help meet an addressable market for plastics with potential revenue opportunities of $120 B in the U.S. and Canada alone. With plastic waste expected to triple by 2060, the need for investments has grown even more urgent.
“The investment from the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund was critical to our expansion into the U.S.,” said Andrew Pieterse, CEO of Myplas USA, a portfolio company of the Circular Plastics Fund. “The fund played a critical role to help bring key stakeholders from across the plastics value chain to grow much-needed regional circular systems for flexible plastics in the U.S. We are thrilled to leverage the fund’s capital and strong network to help us build a successful initial operation in Minnesota followed by ambitious expansion plans to other parts of the Midwest and beyond.”
“We chose to invest through Closed Loop Partners because of their shared sense of urgency to invest in high-impact businesses that can scale to match the global plastic waste challenge,” said Hemal Vyas, Vice-President of Sustainability and Strategy, Charter Next Generation.
Closed Loop Partners, a leading circular economy investment firm, has over $500 M in assets under management, and has made over 65 investments, keeping 3.6 million tons of materials in circulation and avoiding 6.8 million tons of CO2e to date. The firm’s vision for a circular economy includes a circular future for plastics––one that reduces the need to extract virgin resources, harnesses design innovation and material science, and champions reuse models and new product delivery models.
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