P&G R&D Wins Circular Economy Award at Sustainable Packaging Summit 2025
November 20, 2025
At this year’s Sustainable Packaging Summit, P&G’s Research & Development team was honored to receive the “Driving the Circular Economy” award. This recognition celebrates P&G’s development of VersoVita, a cutting-edge, solvent-based dissolution recycling technology that is redefining how polypropylene and polyethylene packaging can be recycled, turning used polypropylene and polyethylene into near-virgin quality plastic suitable for many uses.
Building on its cleaning expertise, P&G tackled the challenge of making used materials more reusable. VersoVita addresses one of the biggest challenges in plastic recycling: effectively cleaning complex, hard-to-recycle materials and transforming them into high-quality, reusable polymers. The process utilizes a solvent to remove odors, inks, dyes, and other contaminants from used plastic.
The result is near-virgin-quality recycled plastic pellets, which received a Letter of No Objection from the FDA approving their use in food packaging. Not only does this innovative process produce less CO2 than the production of virgin resin material, but also the light color and purity of the pellets allow them to be used in a wide range of applications. The solvent itself can also be reused multiple times, and often the extracted materials can be recycled into other products.
P&G’s VersoVita technology is currently licensed to PureCycle and is operational at a commercial scale, with the facility aiming to produce up to 49,000 tons of recycled polypropylene annually. P&G and Dow also entered a joint development agreement in March 2024 to develop the technology to targeting polyethylene. The development of this technology and the partnerships have been established to directly support P&G’s sustainability goals of reducing reliance on fossil-sourced plastics and increasing recycled content in their packaging.
“We are delighted to be recognized with this award,” said Lee Ellen Drechsler, PhD, Senior Vice President of R&D. “Programs like the Sustainable Packaging Summit encourage innovative solutions and drive us to raise the bar and challenge the status quo. VersoVita is a testament to our scientists’ and engineers’ commitment to making a meaningful impact on plastic waste and enabling a more circular economy.”
By sharing VersoVita with partners and scaling its use, P&G is helping transform the industry’s approach to plastic waste and paving the way for a more sustainable future. The recognition at the Sustainable Packaging Summit underscores the importance of collaboration and innovation in meeting the world’s environmental challenges.
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