TEXTILES.ORG
NylaNova, a chemical recycling company in Evanston, Ill., has announced a partnership with Nylene, a nylon-6 producer with operations in the U.S. and Canada. Under the partnership, NylaNova will supply Nylene with caprolactam, the raw material used to make nylon, recovered from post-consumer nylon-6 waste.
Nylene has produced specialty nylon resins, copolymers and compounds for decades, supplying the automotive, packaging, wire and cable, injection molding, roto molding, fiber, and carpet industries. The company is also long established in nylon recycling, operating a nylon-6 depolymerization process at its Arnprior, Ont., Canada, facility. NylaNova’s caprolactam will become an additional supply source for their nylon-6 production.
NylaNova uses selective catalysts developed at and licensed from, Northwestern University to depolymerize nylon-6 waste into high-purity caprolactam at yields above 90%. The process accepts mixed apparel, carpet, and industrial scrap with no pre-sorting.
“The real test of a recycling technology is whether a producer will buy the material and put it into production,” says Yosi Kratish, founder and chief technology officer of NylaNova. “Nylene knows exactly what quality their customers will accept. Meeting that standard is what we set out to do.”
NylaNova has demonstrated its process on mixed plastic waste, running continuously on off-the-shelf equipment. An independent third-party life cycle assessment found the resulting green caprolactam produces 95% lower greenhouse gas emissions than the conventional virgin route. The material is offered at a virgin- competitive price, with no green premium.
“Our caprolactam has to meet the same specifications the nylon industry already runs on, with no changes to anyone’s process,” says Ananth Naman, president of NylaNova. “That is what we built the technology to do, and supplying Nylene is how we prove it.”
“We have been recycling nylon-6 at Arnprior since 1966, so we understand how much value there is in recovering this material,” says Scott Kuehl, business development and product manager at Nylene. “The mixed polymer post-consumer waste stream is not viable within our current operations, while NylaNova’s process is designed from inception for this underserved resource. We believe that more nylon should have a second life, and a third, and buying their green caprolactam is the next step in making that a reality.”
The work has also been backed by Apparel Impact Institute, which awarded NylaNova a grant in December 2025.
NylaNova plans to open its first commercial manufacturing plant in 2028. For more information about Nyla Nova, visit nylanova.com.
For more information about Nylene, visit nylene.com.