From nuclear waste recycling to making T-shirts out of plastic bottles, here are nine of the most interesting new companies in the recycling sector.
From nuclear waste to tyres, batteries, or T-shirts made from plastic bottles, the list of materials that can be recycled has been growing rapidly along with the ways to do so. Corporate investors are increasingly putting money into backing startups working on technologies that can help them reuse materials.
GCV Corporate Venturing Deal data has tracked close to 50 corporate-backed funding rounds for startups involved in recycling technologies over the past two years.
Here is a list of some of the newer companies to emerge. None have raised money past series A stage so far, but all are worth having on the radar.
DePoly
Sion, Switzerland
Founded: 2020
Funding to date: $15.3m
More than 90% of the world’s plastics are not recycled, instead ending up in landfills, the ocean or, increasingly, the food chain. DePoly has created a process that breaks down polyester and PET, the plastic used in plastic bottles and clothing, from a polymer structure to its original two monomers, meaning they can be used in new plastics and chemicals.
The process doesn’t use heat or pressure, and it doesn’t need the plastic to be sorted, washed, separated or melted beforehand, the way it does with mechanical recycling systems. The Swiss company broke ground on its showcase plant in June last year.
Chemicals producer BASF co-led DePoly’s $13.8m seed round in mid-2023 through BASF Venture Capital, with packaging manufacturer Beiersdorf and Ciech Ventures, the investment arm of chemical provider Ciech, also participating.
