Australian enviro-tech startup Samsara Eco has unveiled plans to create the nation’s first infinite recycling research and development hub, as the company continues to scale up and work towards achieving its key milestone of recycling 1.5 million tonnes of plastic per annum by 2030.
The $25 million R&D facility will be located within the Poplars Innovation Precinct at Jerrabomberra, Queanbeyan, in regional New South Wales, and is expected to be operational by late 2024.
Samsara Eco’s hub will be focused on accelerating its scientific research to be ready for commercialisation in future facilities, and it will provide a home base for the startup, which was launched in 2021, as it scales its patented enzymatic capabilities.
Samsara Eco founder and CEO Paul Riley says you can’t solve the climate crisis unless you solve the plastics crisis.
“Plastic is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century and provides enormous utility because of its durability, flexibility and strength,” he told SmartCompany.
“The global plastics market is expected to reach a value of more than US$810 billion by 2030. Plastic consumption isn’t showing down, and each year, the world produces and consumes over 380 million tonnes.
“Yet, plastic is an environmental disaster, with almost every piece of the 9 billion tonnes ever made still on the planet.”
Samsara Eco’s pioneering technology is “a solution to the problem”, says Riley.
“Instead of mining for fossil fuels to create new plastic or relying on current recycling methods, which result in less than 10% of plastic waste actually being recycled, we take plastic that already exists to infinitely recycle it.”
Samsara Eco raised $56 million in its Series A round in November 2022 and recently hired its first chief technology officer. The startup has raised about $65 million to date and has used some of this funding for the R&D centre.
“The facility is a $25 million facility — the build, the equipment and fitout,” says Riley.
“The four labs will assist us in commercialising the product and accommodate around 40 people initially, and will have two lines on the floor of the factory to accelerate commercialisation.
“This will process different plastics and be a proof of concept for partners for the building of the facility off-shore.
“It’s the next step towards having a full-scale facility with our technology.”
Samsara Eco is already working with range of prominent partners, including Lululemon, Woolworths Group and Kanematsu, among others.
“The three key sectors we’re focused on are fashion, automotive and packaging,” explains Riley.
“For those partners, we’re developing trial products to replace fossil fuel plastics in their supply chain. We expect that we’ll have facilities built in North America, Europe, South East Asia and eventually in Australia.
“What’s currently pulling us to market is that our relationships are predominantly international partnerships. So, we expect that we’ll have facilities in the regions of our partnerships to support their supply chains.
“The legislative environment of Europe and North America are really supportive of this sort of technology. The IRA is supporting decarbonisation and growth in North America. In Europe, there’s legislation in place for minimum recycled content that supports and drives investment into the advanced recycling space.
“Australia needs to be more ambitious in that regard. We’ve seen that self-regulation in Australia hasn’t worked, and we’ll need to be more ambitious to drive for minimum recycled content across fashion and packaging.
Riley says Samsara Eco’s current roadmap is to recycle 1.5 million tonnes of plastic by 2030.
“If adopted globally, Samsara Eco will end both plastic waste and the production of new plastics using fossil fuels, saving an estimated ~3 tonnes of carbon for every tonne of plastic processed and creating a truly circular economy for plastics,” he says.
“In scientific terms, we use enzymes that can attack complex plastics (polymers), reverting them back to their original chemical building blocks (monomers).
“Our process is infinite because through reverting complex polymers into simple monomers, we can make new, virgin-grade plastics without ever needing fossil fuels again. A truly curricular process.”
“Samsara Eco is unique in its comparison to traditional recycling methods through its ability to recycle mixed bale waste.
“From hard plastics to textiles like nylon 6,6 and polyester, we can break down mixed bale (multi-coloured) plastics as the process is tolerant of contamination and dyes. This opens up a market, taking the feedstock that other recyclers don’t want, and putting it through our process, which is energy efficient and economical.”
Until now, Samsara Eco has been based at the Australian National University (ANU), but its team an opportunity to produce larger volumes has grown substantially.
“The R&D facility is our opportunity to bring this product to market. Currently, we’re making small-scale volumes, which are sufficient to deliver trial products with partners, but the facility will allow us to accelerate our commercialisation,” says Riley.
“Our connection with the university doesn’t go anywhere, and ANU (which is also a shareholder) will still be responsible for all of our deep research. But now as a team of 66, we’ve outgrown the university and — if we’re going to bring this to market quickly — it’s time for us to have our facility.”
Riley says Samsara Eco’s partnership with Woolworths Group is another example of how the startup is driving impact.
“Infinitely recycled packaging will be on shelves in Woolies in the next few years and is an important stepping stone toward recycling 1.5 million tonnes of plastic per year by 2030,” he says.
“The ability to infinitely recycle textiles and our partnership with Lululemon represents another milestone.
“As we expand our library of plastic-eating enzymes, the opportunity for infinite plastic recycling will continue to grow across all these industries and we’ll never need to produce plastic from fossil fuels again.”
