By Richard Shaw, Director – Sustainability & Circular Economy
Sustainability is foundational to everything we do at AmSty. That's why we're proud to showcase our history and progress in our sustainability reports. This year's report, "Building Momentum," speaks to our continued headway in building a more sustainable future for our employees, our customers and the planet.
Sustainability has become a bit of a buzzword, but it's absolutely the right thing to do – and society today expects it. I'm proud to work for a company that has focused on sustainability since AmSty was formed more than 15 years ago. To steal a line from an old country song, we were sustainable when sustainability wasn't cool.
If you've followed our story, you're likely most familiar with our sustainable circular recycling technology for life-enhancing polystyrene – a material found in essential products like food packaging, medical supplies, energy conservation and more.
We can now take used polystyrene and turn into back into new polystyrene with the same quality and durability as the original. We're committed to a goal of 30% recycled content in our food packaging and foodservice products by 2030 as a first step on the journey to seeing all polystyrene recycled. We're actively involved with supply chain partners to expand proven technologies and validate promising ones.
But that's just one aspect of sustainability at AmSty. We continually focus on incorporating sustainable practices across the company.
- We value and invest in our human capital, focusing on the safety, health and well-being of our employees, attracting and retaining talented team members and fostering an inclusive environment where varied perspectives and experiences are welcomed.
- We advance efforts to mitigate climate change, which includes our circular recycling solutions, optimizing efficiencies in our supply chain to improve environmental performance, being good stewards of water use and recycling, reducing waste, improving energy efficiency and investing in alternative energies like solar power.
- We integrate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) into our decision-making, meaning the principles serve as our ethical compass as leadership guides the company on all fronts – innovation, employee well-being, EH&S environmental, health and safety), community stewardship and involvement and more.
"Building Momentum," also speaks to the pace of progress when it comes to the rapid growth and acceleration of manufacturing verification systems like the mass balance approach and certification standards like ISCC PLUS. In 2023, we completed our first sale of ISCC PLUS-certified recycled polystyrene, called PolyRenew®, and the customer list is growing.
We are building momentum not only with circular polystyrene, but also other essential materials like styrene – repurposed from plastic waste into circular styrene – for use in everyday applications, like the tires on our vehicles.
An achievement noted in our report of which I'm incredibly proud is AmSty's leadership in forming the Polystyrene Recycling Alliance (PSRA). Advancing the circular economy, PRSA will harness the energy and talent of the broader polystyrene industry to rapidly improve recycling access for polystyrene across the U.S so that it can be consistently reused and recycled.
PRSA is a clear demonstration of our momentum and an example of how we're seeing a convergence on the topic of circularity – groups spanning the value chain, like resin manufacturers, converters and brands, coming together to get serious about making polystyrene recycling commonplace.
I'm excited for the future and frankly, I can't think of a better title for this year's report. We want our employees and customers, the public, legislators and other stakeholders to know that we're building momentum and we're not going to stop.