Dive Brief:
- Norway-based Agilyx announced it has agreed to a memorandum of understanding with ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell, its joint venture partners in plastics recycling company Cyclyx International, to split up ownership of two planned circularity centers in Texas.
- The news comes a few days after Agilyx said it would restructure its U.S.-based chemical recycling business and will assume full ownership of Cyclyx International by March 25.
- A planned circularity center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area “will be fully owned by Agilyx,” the company announced on Thursday. That’s a change from Agilyx’s previous announcement earlier this week that it would “unwind” its plans to invest in that facility in an effort to recover a $50 million senior secured bond. ExxonMobil and LyondellBasell will now jointly own the Houston circularity center, according to the Thursday announcement.
Dive Insight:
Agilyx, LyondellBasell and ExxonMobil’s updated agreement is part of a “mutual, strategic realignment,” the companies said. It was spurred in part by an announcement Agilyx made on Feb. 2 saying it planned to restructure its company to better focus its investments in Europe.
Agilyx launched in Longview, Washington, in 2004, at the time called Plas2fuel. It focused on developing pyrolysis technologies to convert plastic waste to liquid fuel, and expanded to Tigard, Oregon, in 2009. That’s where it established its first chemical recycling facility for polystyrene in 2018. Agilyx Corp. currently is a U.S.-based wholly owned subsidiary of Norway-based Agilyx AS.
Agilyx had once pitched the Texas-based joint venture and its planned circularity centers as a powerful way to source, collect and process all types of plastics to create feedstocks for both chemical recycling and mechanical recycling customers. LyondellBasell and ExxonMobil invested in Cyclyx in 2022.
Agilyx’s overall restructuring is meant to help reduce its capital expenditure exposures and “remove a material standalone operating cost base” so it can focus on its European expansion.
But it’s not immediately cutting all ties with the U.S.-based circularity center projects, it said.
On Monday, Agilyx said it would continue to hold the long-term lease for the circularity center building planned for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but it may consider subleasing the facility. That lease is currently costing Agilyx about $32.7 million.
It also plans to keep its offtake agreement with ExxonMobil for 50,000 metric tons per year of material, “with the potential for additional volumes over time,” the company said.
Also on Monday, ExxonMobil announced that its third chemical recycling plant, located in Baytown, Texas, is now operational and has a processing capacity of about 250 million pounds a year. ExxonMobil says it’s “on track” to reach about 450 million pounds of annual chemical recycling capacity across its facilities by the end of the year. Those facilities are separate from ExxonMobil’s involvement with Cyclyx.
Agilyx’s new actions mean “we are substantially reducing our capex and opex exposures while significantly increasing strategic and financial flexibility,” said CEO Ranjeet Bhatia in a statement.
Cyclyx International operates as a consortium of companies across the plastic value chain including plastic producers, medical waste companies, equipment manufacturers and packaging companies. Consortium members include Eastman, PepsiCo, Styropek, TotalEnergies, Advanced Drainage Systems, Nova Chemicals and Anchor Packaging. Cyclyx estimates it provided more than 75 million pounds of “end-use” plastic in 2025 as feedstock for advanced recycling purposes, according to its website.
It’s unclear how the joint venture’s restructuring will affect ongoing operations at the Cyclyx circularity center in Houston, which announced in April 2025 that it had completed “all major civil and structural work” but has not announced an official completion date. Representatives for Cyclyx did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In an emailed statement, LyondellBasell said it “remains committed to its long-term strategy to build a profitable circular and low carbon solutions business and will continue to evaluate opportunities aligned with its strategy.”
In addition, it’s not clear how Agilyx’s sole ownership stake in the Dallas-area circularity center will affect the timeline for opening. The three stakeholders had previously planned to jointly contribute a total of $135 million to build that center, with an expected opening date sometime in the second half of 2026.
Agilyx’s new European focus stems from its expansion plans for GreenDot. It acquired a 44% stake in the company in October and sees its investment as a way to create “a global platform for sourcing and supplying feedstock to the advanced recycling industry.”
Agilyx expects GreenDot to generate more than 20 million euros in 2026 and generate more than 100 million euros by 2030 through a combination of M&A and organic growth.
Recent adoption of new packaging regulations in the European Union, along with recycled content mandates there, “are expected to drive both mechanical and advanced recycling feedstock demand ahead of supply toward 2030, creating structural margin opportunities,” Agilyx stated. The company sees its focus on “high-quality feedstock” as an opportunity to find “top-tier financial partners” for future European expansion.
GreenDot at one time had plans to expand into North America as a producer responsibility organization, but no longer offers those services there.
