ORLANDO, Fla., March 25, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PureCycle Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCT), today, announced that it has signed a €40 million grant agreement from the Innovation Fund with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) to fund its ‘ASTRA PP’ project in the NextGen District at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. Yesterday, CINEA announced that a total of 54 projects selected under the Innovation Fund 2024 Call for Net-Zero Technologies have signed their grant agreements. In total, the projects will receive €2.7 billion of funding.

As part of Project ‘ASTRA PP,’ PureCycle will install a polypropylene (PP) dissolution recycling facility in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, in Belgium designed for an annual production capacity of 59,000 tonnes (130 million lbs.) of PureFive ® resin. The project name, ‘ASTRA PP’, pays homage to PureCycle's facility site in the NextGen District and stands for Advanced Solvent-based Technology for Recycling in Antwerp for Polypropylene.

The project will contribute to the decarbonization and circularity objectives of the European Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Clean Industrial Deal by providing circular alternatives to conventional fossil-raw-materials for PP production. When completed, the project will provide PureCycle’s customers with solutions for complying with European Union (EU) regulations, such as the recycled content targets in the Packaging & Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation (ELVR).

"This grant from the Innovation Fund is a significant validation of our dissolution recycling technology and Europe's commitment to building a truly circular economy for plastics,” said Dustin Olson, PureCycle CEO. “The Antwerp facility represents PureCycle's strategic expansion into one of the world's most demanding regulatory environments for sustainability, and this funding supports our goal of delivering recycled polypropylene at scale to European brand owners and manufacturers. We are proud to be part of the solution that policymakers, consumers and brands are demanding.”

The Antwerp facility is expected to create positive impacts at an economy-wide level across sectors by providing circular, made-in-Europe PP products that meet the growing customer demand for more sustainable solutions. The ‘ASTRA PP’ project is expected to reach greenhouse gas emission avoidance of 85% relative to conventional fossil-raw-material-based polypropylene production, according to the specific calculation methodology of the Innovation Fund.

In addition to signing this grant agreement, PureCycle remains actively engaged with Flanders regional officials and has applied for Flemish regional support for additional funding for the ‘ASTRA PP’ project.

PureCycle Contact
Christian Bruey
[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact
Eric DeNatale
[email protected]

CINEA Disclaimer
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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. www.purecycle.com

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.​