The linear life of plastics

Manufacturing plastics releases all manner of pollutants and toxic chemicals into the environment. Plastics manufacturing directly contributes to global warming because they’re made from fossil fuel. It is predicted that by 2050 15% of the carbon budget will come from the plastics sector.

Fossil fuels can be turned into literally thousands of types of plastics, all containing different chemical additives and properties.

This diversity in durability, flexibility and strength, is one of the reasons we’re addicted to plastics.

It’s why plastics are everywhere, in virtually every sector, even in places you wouldn’t expect.

This diversity is also why our waste systems cannot cope. It’s why less than 10% of our plastics end up being recycled.

Samsara Eco can change this.

Today, less than 10% plastics are recycled.

Why?

The problem with traditional recycling

Traditional recycling (more commonly conceptualised as curb side collection) actually results in downcycling, where plastics lose their integrity and quality with each mechanical cycle.

This means the mechanically recycled plastics must be mixed with virgin plastics - sometimes only constituting as little as 10% of the new ‘recycled’ product!

Sadly, after 4-6 cycles, the quality becomes so low that these unusable plastics have only one fate: landfill.

This is not genuine recycling.

This is delayed landfilling.

The problem with advanced recycling

Unlike mechanical recycling, advanced recycling actually changes plastics at the molecular level. The result is not finely ground polymers, but rather original monomers ready to be made into new, virgin-grade plastics or fuel.

While advanced recycling is certainly useful for diverting plastics waste away from landfill, most of these processes are still highly pollutive…

Types of advanced recycling

  • Thermal recycling

    Uses very high heat to revert plastic polymers into monomers or convert them into fuels (waste to energy).

    This results in recyclables with premium price tags, while still contributing to climate-warming carbon emissions.

  • Chemical recycling

    Uses solvents to revert plastic polymers into monomers for high-quality plastics and fuels.

    There are many different approaches to chemical recycling, but ultimately it is expensive, slow, and pollutive.

  • Enzymatic recycling

    Using enzymes found in nature and highly optimised in the laboratory, this process also results in high-quality plastics.

    Not all enzymatic technologies are environmentally friendly. But ours is.

Multiple plastics | minimal environmental impact | virgin-grade products | fast and scalable

Plastics are the problem… right?

The demonisation of plastics has made glass, paper, bioplastics, and woven textiles feel like the better, guilt-free choice. Unfortunately, all waste—not just plastics—is a big problem.

This does not mean we should give up and settle for single-use plastics! On the contrary, we need to be vigilant about all our waste (not just plastic). And where plastics are concerned, we need to  demand 100% infinitely recycled plastics.

Bioplastics

Paper

Glass

Textile

At Samsara Eco, we are able to take the remarkable plastic-degrading capabilities found in nature and study them, optimise them, and execute them at a commercial speed and scale.

Samsara Eco absolutely advocates for less plastics through reducing, reusing, and repairing. We want to build a world that never needs fossil fuels for plastics again.

We want to take responsibility for the plastics already on earth, by never letting them become waste, ever.

9 problems of plastics

We are attacking the plastics problems holistically

Samsara Eco is tackling:

SAM.FOR.CHANGE is working on:

You can act today

We are working on a bunch of strategies to empower the community with knowledge and a platform for reaching policymakers.

  • We are constantly learning and we want to share our knowledge with you! Follow us to learn more about the myths of traditional recycling, greenwashing tactics that corporations employ, and the science behind our technology.

  • We know that solving the plastics crisis is also about culture and policy. That’s why we created SAM.FOR.CHANGE. SAM is still in its earliest stages, and we encourage you to join us in making it a voice of the community. Sign our pledge (and watch this space) for more on how we are working to bring change in the political arena.