Partnership to turn mixed nylon waste into new raw material
NylaNova has formed a nylon-6 chemical recycling partnership to supply manufacturer Nylene with caprolactam, the raw material for new nylon, recovered from post-consumer waste. Announced on 4 November 2026, the agreement will make NylaNova’s recovered material an additional feedstock for Nylene’s nylon-6 production. Nylene operates in the United States and Canada, supplying markets ranging from fibres and carpets to automotive components and packaging. For NylaNova, which plans its first commercial manufacturing plant in 2028, the partnership establishes a customer relationship as it develops production capacity.
Founded in 2024 and based in Evanston, Illinois, NylaNova commercialises catalyst technology developed at Northwestern University and exclusively licensed to the company. Its founders include chemists Yosi Kratish, the startup’s chief technology officer, and Tobin Marks, its scientific adviser.
The company focuses on nylon-6, also known as polyamide 6: a durable plastic used in clothing, carpets, fishing nets and engineered components. NylaNova’s product is caprolactam, the molecular building block from which nylon-6 is made, rather than finished fabric or recycled garments.
Producing nylon-6 involves joining many caprolactam molecules into long polymer chains. NylaNova reverses that chemistry through depolymerisation, breaking those chains back into their constituent building blocks. After purification, the recovered caprolactam can be used to manufacture new nylon.
This molecular recovery is different from mechanically recycling a plastic by processing and melting it for reuse. By returning to the starting molecule, the process provides a route to new material that meets the same specifications as nylon made from virgin feedstock. NylaNova says its fibre-grade caprolactam can enter existing production without manufacturers changing their processes.
Why mixed nylon waste is difficult to recycle
The durability that makes nylon useful also complicates its disposal. Its strong polymer structure resists breakdown, while end-of-life products rarely arrive as a convenient stream of one clean material.
Clothing can combine several fibres, and carpets contain different components assembled into a single product. Recovering useful nylon from these mixtures requires a process that can handle the accompanying materials. Separating everything beforehand adds work and expense, making the composition of the incoming waste central to recycling economics.
Northwestern’s researchers addressed this problem with catalysts that selectively break down nylon-6 in plastic mixtures. Their approach opens a route to recovering its molecular building blocks without first isolating a clean nylon-only stream, although the other materials in the mixture are not necessarily recycled by the same process.
Selective catalysts for nylon-6 chemical recycling
To recover that building block, NylaNova combines selective catalysis with a solvent-free reaction. The underlying Northwestern work, published online in the journal Chem in November 2023, demonstrated catalysts based on earth-abundant metals that break nylon-6 down into caprolactam. The researchers tested end-of-life articles including fishing nets, carpets and clothing, alongside plastic mixtures.
In those laboratory experiments, the process achieved caprolactam yields of at least 99% at 240°C, with operation possible at temperatures as low as 220°C.
The catalytic mechanism helps the polymer chains “unzip”, releasing the original monomer. The study demonstrated that the recovered caprolactam could be polymerised again to make new nylon-6. The reaction did not require a solvent, avoiding the need for a liquid reaction medium that would subsequently have to be managed and separated.
Building on that research, NylaNova now reports caprolactam yields above 90% and says it has demonstrated continuous operation at tonne scale on mixed plastic waste using commercially available equipment. These company-reported demonstrations are distinct from the earlier laboratory experiments and precede its planned commercial plant.
What the Nylene partnership adds
Other companies are also developing routes to recover nylon from difficult textile waste. BASF’s loopamid technology accommodates nylon-6 fabrics containing elastane and was used in a Zara jacket launched in 2024, while Aquafil opened a demonstration plant in Slovenia in 2025 to separate elastane from nylon before regeneration through its ECONYL system.
This wider activity shows how established nylon recycling processes are being extended to accept more difficult waste streams. Nylene brings direct experience of that industry and a manufacturing outlet for NylaNova’s recovered molecule. Its Arnprior facility has produced nylon-6 since 1966, and the company’s recycling documentation describes converting post-consumer and post-industrial nylon back into caprolactam before making new polymer.
Its existing recycling operations cannot, however, viably process the mixed-polymer post-consumer waste that NylaNova is targeting, according to Nylene. Buying recovered caprolactam allows Nylene to use material originating from those streams without treating the mixed waste itself. Under the partnership, NylaNova will supply the purified building block for Nylene to turn into commercial nylon products.
NylaNova says its material is priced competitively with virgin caprolactam, without a sustainability premium. Alongside compatibility with existing production, that positioning is intended to make recycled feedstock usable in routine manufacturing rather than dependent on a separate premium product range.
The company also reports that an independent life-cycle assessment found greenhouse gas emissions 95% below those of conventional virgin caprolactam production. That figure concerns the recovered chemical’s production route; it should not be read as an equivalent reduction across an entire garment’s life cycle.
Building the supply chain for recycled nylon
NylaNova’s development has received support from the Apparel Impact Institute, which funds solutions to reduce the fashion industry’s environmental impact. Its grant programme supports work spanning pilot production, catalyst optimisation, partner validation, polymerisation and fibre spinning, alongside environmental and economic assessments.
Following the recovered material through these stages connects the recycling chemistry with the requirements of textile production. The Nylene partnership adds an established manufacturer to that progression, giving NylaNova a route from mixed waste to an industrial feedstock as it prepares for its planned 2028 commercial plant.
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