Trinseo, Lapo and laprima plastics advance PMMA depolymerization recycling for eyewear
- After more than two years of development, partners collected and prepared internal PMMA demo‑lens waste for recycling.
- laprima plastics performed grinding and purification to remove contaminants including polycarbonate, glass and polyamide.
- Trinseo blended the purified PMMA with other feedstocks and ran an industrial‑scale depolymerization trial that produced crude recycled MMA.
- An earlier collaboration had validated ALTUGLAS R‑LIFE PMMA resin with at least 86% recycled content for optical lens applications.
Milestone achieved
Trinseo, Lapo s.r.l. and laprima plastics s.r.l. completed an industrial‑scale demonstration that converted collected PMMA demo‑lens waste into crude methyl methacrylate (MMA) using depolymerization, marking a step toward circular solutions for eyewear acrylics.
Feedstock preparation
Project partners improved collection and segregation of demo‑lens waste. laprima plastics carried out grinding and purification to reduce contamination from polycarbonate, glass and polyamide, creating a feedstock suitable for advanced recycling.
Depolymerization trial
Encouraging laboratory evaluations at Trinseo’s Rho, Italy facility supported the move to industrial processing. The purified PMMA waste was blended with additional PMMA feedstocks and processed through Trinseo’s depolymerization technology, producing crude recycled MMA for further processing.
Collaboration and outlook
The work builds on an earlier project that demonstrated ALTUGLAS™ R‑LIFE™ PMMA resin with at least 86% recycled content for demanding optical applications. The partners highlight that combining waste collection, pre‑processing and depolymerization shows a potential pathway to close the loop for PMMA in eyewear, while noting further development and scaling are still required.
Source: Trinseo