Novolooop makes tons of recycled plastic

Plastic has a recycling problem. Only on 9% plastic is recycled and a majority From this waste comes from single -use items such as plastic grocery bags. This is partly a design problem – they are made to be thrown away. But it is also a technological problem because the recycling of such films is not easy, and the results are generally not excellent.

Novoloop said he has developed a way to take these annoying plastics and transform them into something other companies really want to buy.

The Startup based in California recently completed a test of its demonstration factory which permanently in plastic waste. The plant is capable of throwing thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) up to 70 metric tonnes per year which can be used in everything, from sneakers to car seats. The demand was strong enough for the company to prepare plans for greater installation.

“We are sold. Literally, whenever we do something, we are sold,” Miranda Wang, co-founder and CEO of Novologop, said in Techcrunch.

In the heels of its demonstration production, Novologop has collected a B series of $ 21 million to finalize the design of its first factory on a commercial scale and start construction, said the company exclusively in Techcrunch. The new round was led by Taranis, an investment fund belonging to the Penenco oil and gas company, with the participation of Valo Ventures and Shop Limited.

The company has no location chosen for its factory on a commercial scale, but it seeks to build alongside an existing chemical factory which could have additional land and public services available. The other company could own and use the installation, Novoloop providing the know-how of the process and marketing.

“Sometimes it is difficult for them to meet growth opportunities,” said Wang. “It is a way for them to access this growth opportunity without having to learn a completely different market in which they must sell things because we take care of marketing and sales and technology.”

Novoloop previously raised a 21 million dollars series Awhich helped the company refine its process to the point where the manufacturer of running shoes used its recycled material for the tread of its Cloudprime sneaker.

The recycled material at the top of the startup, which he calls Cycliné TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane), is made by decomposing the plastic with polyethylene into its basic construction blocks, called monomers. From there, it synthesizes new more precious polymers than initial polyethylene. The resulting equipment is more expensive than Virgin, but “within range,” said Wang.

Wang added that the Novologoop experience with TPU led the company to another business line, mechanically recycling TPU remains from factory floors and adding “performance amplifiers” to make it work more like a virgin material.

When the time came to build the demonstration factory, Novologoop evaluated an installation in the United States, but it quickly moved to India, where Aether Industries had not simply built a driver factory but “a driver factory,” said Wang. “They have a plant of a bunch of pilots.”

Ether’s experience with small -scale chemical manufacturing factories – associated with its ability to reuse the equipment of dismantled pilots – means that the construction and operation of the Novologop factory would cost ten times less than the construction of the small installation in the United States

“It’s an environment we don’t have here,” said Wang.