Japanese banking company invests $10 million in Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund

Japan-based Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. (SMBC) is investing US$10 million into a fund designed to advance the recovery and recycling of rigid and flexible polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plastics in Canada and the U.S.

SMBC, which has multinational operations, is placing the money with the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund, which provides debt and equity financing aimed at attracting additional investments into recovery and recycling solutions and infrastructure.

The fund is part of Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based firm that invests in circular economy projects.

The fund, which was launched in 2021, provides catalytic debt and equity financing for investments into recovery and recycling solutions and infrastructure that can help address bottlenecks in the recycling system. Fund performance is benchmarked according to a combination of financial and impact outcomes, including tons of PE and PP impacted, and tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions avoided or reduced.

Investments made by Closed Loop in an equity investment in Greyparrot, a leading AI waste analytics platform that links to moving conveyor belts in sorting facilities to increase transparency and automation in recycling; a loan to Myplas USA, a recycling company building a 170,000 square-foot plastic films recycling plant in Minnesota, aiming to process up to 45,000 tons of plastic waste annually at full capacity; an equity investment in Circular Services, said to be the largest privately held recycling and reuse company in North America, including major municipal and commercial contracts; and a follow-on loan to the Waste Commission of Scott County, a solid waste district in Iowa, to finance the purchase of new optical sorters for the county’s existing materials recovery facility.

To date, Closed Loop says it has kept 4.8 million tons of materials in circulation and contributed to the avoidance of 10.1 million tonnes of CO2e.

According to Closed Loop, other investors in the Circular Plastics Fund include Dow, LyondellBasell Industries, Chevron Phillips Chemical, Nova Chemicals, Charter Next Generation, SK Geo Centric Co., and Sealed Air.