DePoly to open 500-tonne-per-year recycling plant for PET

Tackling plastic pollution and waste is among the most urgent issues of our time, as the non-biodegradable material is increasingly finding its way into natural ecosystems, disrupting wildlife and contaminating everything from to the water we drink to the soil that grows our food. It goes without saying that reducing plastic consumption is a key priority across the globe, as is establishing proper recycling methods for plastic products, which would create a more circular economy for the synthetic material and keep it out of the environment. Such is the goal at DePoly, a Switzerland-based cleantech that has developed a technology for recycling PET waste into virgin-grade raw materials.

The company was founded in 2020 and has already made big impact, being named the 2024 Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum. Now, with $23 million in recent seed funding, the startup is scaling up its capabilities with the opening of a showcase plant with a 500-tonne-per-year recycling capacity. The facility and DePoly’s growing operations could be significant for the polymer 3D printing industry, where PET is a key consumable. Not only could 3D printed PET waste be recycled, but PET filaments and pellets could one day be derived from post-consumer and post-industrial waste recycled by DePoly.

PET is a widely consumed material, used in synthetic textiles, drink bottles, food containers and more. And while the material is completely recyclable, studies in recent years have shown that only about 30% of PET bottles and jars are actually recycled. With its upcoming facility in Monthey, Switzerland, DePoly is progressing in its mission to scale up its recycling technology, which can turn even dirty post-consumer PET into fresh virgin-grade raw material, increasing the viability of recycling plastics.

“The upcoming showcase plant validates our roadmap to creating a truly circular plastics market,” said 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.”

The showcase plant is expected to open this summer and will highlight DePoly’s proprietary process, which turns PET into its original monomers (PTA and MEG). Moreover, the company’s process does not rely on the use of heat or pressure, meaning they can process unsorted post-consumer and post-industrial waste without significant energy consumption. “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,” added David Hanf, DePoly CFO.

According to the company, this process can turn anything from water bottles to polyester shirts into virgin-grade raw materials—identical to their oil-based counterparts—that can be used as building blocks for new products, including bottles, high-performance textile fibers, cosmetic packaging and more. To date, DePoly has worked with a number of companies to demonstrate and validate this capability, including sportswear brand Odlo and plastic fabrication company PTI.