Turning Campaign Clutter into Clean Plastics

As US election campaigns gain momentum, election placards and signs are being displayed across stadiums and tour stops across the country. Fortunately, not all of these signs will end up in landfills. PureCycle Technologies, Inc. has partnered with Seminole County’s government and the local chapter of the League of Women Voters to collect nearly 800 pounds of campaign signs after the recent primary elections. These signs will be recycled by PureCycle into PureFive™ resin, a material used to create new products and packaging.

PureCycle’s technology enables the production of ultra-pure recycled plastic through a seven-stage process: 1. melting and filtering the feedstock to remove large contaminants and non-melt materials, 2. solvent extraction to eliminate colour and odour, 3. mixing and settling to allow insoluble solids and polymers to settle, 4. filtering to remove particulates and grains, 5. column purification to eliminate residual colour and other small contaminants, 6. solvent separation, and 7. extrusion and pelletizing of purified polypropylene. This multi-stage process results in recycled polypropylene with properties comparable to virgin material.

As a spinoff company, PureCycle prominently states on its website that its patented process is licensed from Procter & Gamble (P&G). A brief review of a 2020 license agreement registered with the US government suggests that at least thirteen different patent families were licensed to PureCycle, these patent families all being filed over a short four-year period. This extensive patent portfolio forms a strong foundation for the company which has recently announced a significant investment of around 90 million USD. It also perhaps reflects the benefits of a corporate budget, which is more likely to allow for a comprehensive filing strategy right from the outset. 

However, there is a valuable lesson here for companies of all sizes: when developing disruptive technologies, it’s critical to view your patent portfolio as a long-term investment. For multi-step processes like the one created by P&G/PureCycle, strategically filing multiple patents—each covering different stages or improvements—can diversify and strengthen protection. This approach reduces reliance on a single patent family and creates additional hurdles for third parties looking to enter the market.