DePoly is launching a showcase plant for converting PET and polyester waste into ‘virgin-quality’ raw materials without fossil fuels, anticipating the production of 500 tonnes every year.
‘Millions of tons’ of PET and polyester waste are said to be incinerated or enter landfills every year. However, DePoly adds that sustainable recycling solutions ‘remain limited’.
DePoly’s technology is designed to derive ‘virgin-quality’ raw materials from PET and polyester waste without relying on fossil fuels. Doing so is expected to minimize waste and lessen industrial reliance on virgin, fossil resources by offering a circular alternative.
This conversion method can apparently be used to manufacture new bottles, cosmetic packaging, and high-performance textile fibres – meeting the ‘highest standards’ of purity and performance, the company says. Now it hopes to demonstrate this process at a showcase plant in Monthey, Switzerland.
“The upcoming showcase plant validates our roadmap to creating a truly circular plastics market,” commented Samantha Anderson, co-founder and CEO of DePoly. “Following our pilot and showcase plant, our next goal is to scale our operations to industrial size with a first of a kind commercial plant based on our technology.”
To increase the amount of PET and polyester waste processed, DePoly plans to build a commercial plant in 2027. It has secured a total of $23 million (€20,238,505) in seed funding with Founderful, ACE & Company, Angel Invest, Zürcher Kantonalbank, BASF Venture Capital, Beiersdorf Venture Capital, Syensqo, and MassMutual Ventures among its investors.
“DePoly’s proven technology is a game changer addressing a crucial industrial and societal challenge,” said Alix Brunet, Europe Lead at MassMutual Ventures. “This raise and the showcase plant opening are advancing DePoly’s position as a leader in plastics recycling.”
“We are convinced our technology is one of the fastest to scale and will allow us to compete with virgin pricing at scale, a key factor for success,” adds DePoly CFO David Hanf. “We are happy to have expanded our investor base to the US with MassMutual Ventures as we want to build a global champion.”
In what DePoly describes as a demonstration of its commercial impact, it previously collaborated with Plastic Technologies Inc. to turn industrial waste into a ‘closed-loop’ recycled PET bottle suitable for food contact and long-term storage. The move is hoped to ‘pave the way for a new standard in the industry’.
In a similar development, GR3N recently opened and launched an industrial demonstration plant for its microwave-assisted depolymerization technology, based on alkaline hydrolysis. This depolymerizes PET waste into its chemical building blocks, which can then be rebuilt into new PET pellets – a process set to help process hard-to-recycle and impure plastic waste.
It also partnered with Schneider Electric to develop the ‘first’ open automation system for advanced plastic recycling, set to reduce human error by 40% and engineering costs by 30% as GR3N scaled up its technology.
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