Depolymerisation changes the lifecycle of PET plastics

Iranpolymer/ Baspar A new player in the chemical recycling market has announced that it has secured CHF12.3m in a recent seed funding round. Founded in 2020, Swiss start-up DePoly has developed a universal chemical recycling process that converts mixed post-consumer and post-industrial polyester plastic, textiles and fibres back into their precursors at virgin-grade quality. The process is energy efficient — operating at room temperature and standard pressure, without the need for pre-sorting, pre-washing, or removal of contaminant materials, and can be implemented with relative ease.
The oversubscribed funding round was co-led by BASF Venture Capital and Wingman Ventures, with the participation of Beiersdorf, Infinity Recycling, CIECH Ventures, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Angel Invest, ACE & Company, and others.

The proceeds of the financing round will enable DePoly to accelerate the scale-up and development of its depolymerisation process, leading to the building of a demonstration plant expected to be operational in 2024.
BASF strongly believes in the potential of the technology developed by DePoly. As brand owners increasingly aim for higher recycled content rates in their products, the demand for advanced recycling technologies is expected to grow. “DePoly’s technology offers a promising solution to address the global plastic waste challenge and concurrently support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions related to the production of virgin plastics. We are excited to support their mission to create a more sustainable future,” Markus Solibieda, Managing Director at BASF Venture Capital.

The plastics market is currently growing at a yearly rate of 5% CAGR, noted Samantha Anderson, CEO and co-founder of DePoly. “Plastics are a part of our lives and an existential dilemma facing us all,” she added. “By recycling pre- / post-consumer and post-industrial plastics that otherwise would be sent to incineration centers or be landfilled, we at DePoly aim to eliminate plastic waste and create a sustainable source of chemicals by diverting this waste from our environment and lowering our carbon footprint up to 65% at the same time. The raw materials produced match that of their fossil-fuel-based equivalents, meaning customers no longer have to choose between PET quality and its sustainability.”
“DePoly is paving the way for a truly sustainable plastic economy. We are extremely proud to support DePoly since day one,” said Antonia Albert, Principal at Wingman Ventures.
DePoly has built and currently operates a pilot plant in Sion, Switzerland, that has a capacity of 50 tonnes per year. The next step is a demonstration plant with a capacity of 500 tonnes per year, to demonstrate the technology at a commercial scale.

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