cycleWood Solutions Information

CycleWood Solutions Inc. is a company founded on the idea that sustainable alternatives can be substituted for materials produced from fossil fuels. This idea is the guiding principal behind their technology and their products. CycleWood was originally an Arkansas based start-up comprised of 5 students who formulated a business plan based on a technology for converting lignin into a useful bioplastic. Their business plan won numerous awards, most notably an Edison award in 2012. Since graduating, two of the original 5 founding members committed to executing against their business plan which is to create a commercial business for the production of sustainable plastic bags based on lignin. Lignin is the second most abundant naturally occurring polymer on Earth, second only to cellulose, and is present in every plant. This abundant, natural, and sustainable material has historically been underutilized as a raw material. CycleWood’s technology is making more efficient use of existing natural resources. CycleWood Solutions started working with lignin in the fall of 2011 and developed a scalable technology by the end of 2013. By the end of 2014, they had a consumer packaged compostable trash bag, the Xylobag, on store shelves. In less than three years they had taken an idea from concept to commercialization. The compostable XyloBag is cycleWood’s flagship product, it demonstrates one of the many applications in which lignin can be used to substitute traditional fossil fuel based plastics. Thus far cycleWood’s patent portfolio includes 6 patents allowed with 3 more pending. Today, cycleWood is recognized as the global leader in commercialized modified lignin. They are continuing to develop lignin-based materials to expand commercial applications.