Meta signs credits deal with plastics startup MacroCycle

Meta has signed an agreement with plastics recycling startup MacroCycle on Tuesday to purchase environmental attribute credits. A spokesperson for Meta confirmed that this is the first such contract the tech giant has signed.

Under the terms of the deal, Meta will pay three-year-old MacroCycle for the rights to avoided carbon emissions. Meta aims to apply these reductions against its carbon footprint, which is expanding as a result of the artificial intelligence boom. Meta also plans to help create a broader commercial market for low-carbon plastics used across its supply chain in hardware and packaging.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, MacroCycle developed a solvent-based process to dissolve and purify PET plastic waste, including textiles, which currently hold a recycling rate of 0.5%. MacroCycle reports that its technology produces 80% fewer carbon emissions compared to virgin PET plastic. Over the past 25 years, U.S. textile manufacturing employment has declined by 85%.

The payments will provide revenue to build MacroCycle's first commercial demonstration plant in the United States, designed to produce 5,000 metric tons of recycled material annually. Co-founder and CEO Stwart Peña Feliz told TechCrunch that the startup is securing buyers and that future plants will be capable of producing 50,000 metric tons per year.