Tokyo (SCCIJ) – Two companies in Switzerland and Japan are tackling head-on the challenging recycling of PET plastics. Kyoei Inc. was the first recycling company worldwide to fully reuse PET bottles. Now, the Swiss start-up DePoly has developed an innovative procedure that may revolutionize the reuse of this particularly durable plastic material.
Deploy founders Christopher Ireland, Samantha Anderson and Bardiya Valizadeh (© DePoly)
Less energy, less CO2
Plastic waste, landfill pollution, and reliance on oil all cause environmental damage, and current PET recycling technologies often face the hurdle of mixed plastic types in the garbage. With a recycling process that can selectively treat PET plastic in the presence of other plastics, the Swiss start-up DePoly aims to close the loop on PET production by recycling post-consumer waste. The resulting chemical products are base materials for 100% recycled PET resins. The Swiss invention is supposed to reduce the required production energy for PET bottles by two-thirds compared to new PET plastic.
Chemical recycling requires a lot of energy as it breaks down the plastic material to a molecular level. Mechanical recycling can handle larger pieces of PET at the molecular level. The latter method is better in terms of energy consumption. But the bottles need to be cleaned thoroughly before the recycling process begins. For example, the Japanese recycler Kyoei was the first worldwide to recycle PET bottles fully. But its process only works with used colorless PET bottles and does not tolerate other plastic materials for later full reuse of the resulting resins.
Demonstration plant
The process developed by DePoly works with all PET plastics including mixed color, multi-layer and polyester fibers, at room temperature without any additional heat or pressure, and with sustainable and environmentally friendly chemicals only. According to the start-up, every ton of plastic being recycled enables it to save an amount of energy equivalent to 4 European households’ annual electricity consumption, 18 barrels of burnt oil or 10 passengers flying from London to New York.
With a tech seed loan of CHF 100,000 from the Swiss Foundation for Technological Innovation (FIT), Deploy is currently building a larger 10-kilogram demonstration plant to refine its process and to finance its staff. The start-up collaborates with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Valais-Wallis and aims at the markets of PET resin producers, plastic recyclers, and chemical industries.
Founded in February 2020 by Samantha Anderson, Christopher Ireland, and Bardiya Valizadeh, DePoly has already received numerous supports, including VentureKick, Climate-Kic, the Swiss Federal Technology Institute Lausanne, Venture and CleanTechAlps. Last year, the young company also won the “Venture” award of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich with prize money of CHF 150,000.
Text: SCCIJ partly with material of DePoly
