By Jim Johnson
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
Published: September 2, 2014 1:33 pm ET
Updated: September 2, 2014 1:39 pm ET
An Allentown, Pa., company is receiving a grant of $737,000 to help support its efforts to develop polymers using post-consumer plastics.
Zzyzx Polymers is getting a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation to working on a process known as continuous mechanochemical compatibilization.
Zzyzx — pronounced ziziks — will use the CMC process to recycle material without the need for extensive cleaning or sorting, according to a news release.
This reduction in steps will return value to the materials in a more cost-competitive way, according to the company and the Allentown Economic Development Corp.
Zzyzx Polymers recently was accepted into an AEDC business incubation program.
“The SBIR grant will allow the Zzyzx management team to accelerate the process of launching and growing the company,” said AEDC Executive Director Scott Unger in a statement. “Ultimately, that means the company is able to create jobs and reach profitability faster than they planned to. We are very excited to see them be awarded this grant.”
Zzyzx expects to begin making prototype resins by the end of this summer. | 
