Over 400 million tons of plastic are created each year, but less than 10 percent of that is recycled. Most of it ends up in incinerators or landfills. The Swiss DeepTech DePoly wants to solve this problem. To do this, it has created a universal chemical recycling process that converts plastics into raw materials. This process should take place without affecting their quality. The startup, founded in 2020, has now raised a $13.8 million round of funding to scale the solution.
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DePoly recycles PET plastics and polyester textiles
The funding round was led by BASF Venture Capital and Wingman Ventures, with participation from Beiersdorf, Infinity Recycling, CIECH Ventures, Angel Invest and others. DePoly aims to solve the entire plastic waste problem with its chemical recycling technology. The start-up company converts all PET plastics and polyester textiles that come from fossil fuels back into their most important basic chemical components. The company then sells these components back to industry. This is intended to create new plastic items in virgin quality, which means a truly sustainable circular economy for plastics.
DePoly has developed chemical recycling technology that operates at room temperature and standard pressure. Unlike most other technologies, it should not require pre-washing, pre-sorting, pre-melting or separation from other plastics or materials. Ultimately, it can handle PET and polyester streams that traditional recycling systems typically reject. This includes materials containing mixed plastics, mixed colors, soiled waste plastics, and fabrics and fibers. The technology is energy efficient, easy to implement and adaptable to the specific needs of customers.
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Pilot plant processes 50 tons of plastic per year
“Plastics are part of our lives and an existential dilemma for all of us. The plastics market is not slowing down. We believe that to effectively address this issue requires a simple, scalable solution that can handle complex plastics. By recycling plastics that would otherwise end up in incinerators or landfills, we at DePoly aim to eliminate plastic waste and create a sustainable source of chemicals,” said Samantha Anderson, CEO and co-founder of DePoly.
The company has built a pilot plant with a capacity of 50 tons per year of these complex PET or polyester plastics. DePoly is currently working on the construction of a new 500 tonne per year flagship facility to demonstrate the technology on a commercial scale. The founders of the young company are Samantha Anderson, Bardiya Valizadeh and Christopher Ireland. Fueled by their collective expertise backed by PhDs in chemistry and engineering, they developed the chemical recycling process. In the founding year of 2020, they put their pilot plant for PET plastics into operation. Today the team consists of 13 employees.
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“Realizing the circular economy for plastics”
“To truly achieve the circular economy for plastics, we need to transform our business practices and that will require a concerted effort from different stakeholders. DePoly’s technology offers a promising solution to address the global problem of plastic waste while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the manufacture of virgin plastics. We are excited to support the company in its mission to create a more sustainable future,” said Markus Solibieda, Managing Director at BASF Venture Capital.