BioCellection provides innovation in plastic recycling

by Startacus Admin

Plastic recycling in an entirely innovative way thanks to BioCellection, the startup that's using advanced technologies to transform un-recyclable plastics into virgin quality chemicals...

Just the other day, Jason Momoa shaved off his beard to raise awareness of plastic pollution and recycling, climate change demonstrators are gluing themselves to things across the UK, not long ago, UK school students took to the streets to protest climate change and the government’s lack of action.

People have had more than enough of the slow death of our only planet, and this is reflected in a lot of our startups. We say it a lot, but it is once again startups stepping up to the challenge...

California-based social enterprise BioCellection is developing novel, scalable, and sustainable processes that treat hard-to-recycle plastic waste, focusing on the 91% of plastic waste that does not get recycled, and turning it into virgin-quality chemicals for sustainable supply chains.

There are various reasons that plastics don’t get recycled. Recyclers sell to markets with strict quality standards that don't tolerate surface contamination, so even food residue and grease mean the plastic doesn’t get recycled, instead going to either a landfill, an incinerator, or being dumped into the ocean. Even colour additives in the plastic can make it too inconsistent to be recycled.

BioCellection’s process is currently for LDPE and HDPE flexible plastics like shopping bags, food wrapping, bubble wrap, etc. Through clever science and stuff, they have found a way to break plastic polymer chains and form valuable organic acid compounds that they can then harvest, purify, and use to make other products, unlocking the potential to replace fossil fuel as a resource for sustainable supply chains.

There is no need to stress how important this is: there are images and videos all over the internet of the horrifying amounts of plastic dumped into the oceans, killing marine life, and it doesn’t take much to imagine just how much worse this will get, and how quickly, if something doesn’t change. The BioCellection co-founders have been named Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for good reason, and they more than deserve their Toyota Mothers of Invention honour.

If you liked the sound of this startup, you might also want to read up on:

Aeropowder, the award winning startup, who's first product pluumo, is the world’s first feather-based thermal packaging material.

Recyclabox - The automated kiosk which is changing forever the way that we as consumers sell old electronics.

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• #
• #plastic
• #recycling
• #ecology
• #renewables
• #sustainability
• #greentech

Published on: 22nd April 2019