Sion, Switz­er­land-based startup DePoly, foun­ded in 2020 by Saman­tha Ander­son, Bardiya Valiz­adeh and Chris­to­pher Ireland, is deve­lo­ping “an inno­va­tive chemi­cal recy­cling tech­no­logy.” The fled­gling company’s tech­no­logy can “convert mixed and diffi­cult-to-recy­cle consu­mer and indus­trial waste streams, for exam­ple, mixed plas­tics, mixed paints, soiled plas­tic waste, and poly­es­ter-based fabrics and fibers back into their primary raw materials.”

Plas­tics are an essen­tial part of ever­y­day life. But only about 10 percent is recy­cled; the majo­rity is inci­ne­ra­ted or land­fil­led. As brand owners incre­asingly seek higher recy­cled content in their products, demand for advan­ced recy­cling tech­no­lo­gies is expec­ted to increase. DePoly offers a unique solu­tion to meet this need.

“Our tech­no­logy has the poten­tial to funda­men­tally change the life­cy­cle of PET plas­tics and support global efforts to address climate change. We are very plea­sed that BASF Venture Capi­tal and other stra­te­gic inves­tors are support­ing us in this round to imple­ment our solu­tion on a larger scale,” said Saman­tha Ander­son (pictu­red), CEO and co-foun­der of DePoly.

BASF is stri­ving to make the tran­si­tion to a circu­lar economy by making grea­ter use of recy­cled and rene­wa­ble raw mate­ri­als, desig­ning new mate­rial cycles and deve­lo­ping new busi­ness models. BASF is ther­e­fore imple­men­ting a circu­lar economy program. The company aims to double its sales of circu­lar economy solu­ti­ons to €17 billion by 2030. One exam­ple of these efforts is BASF’s Chem­Cy­cling® busi­ness. The invest­ment in DePoly is a further commit­ment to support this goal.

“To truly make the circu­lar economy for plas­tics a reality, we need to change the way we do busi­ness, and that requi­res a concer­ted effort from multi­ple stake­hol­ders. DePoly’s tech­no­logy offers a promi­sing solu­tion to address the global problem of plas­tic waste, while helping to reduce green­house gas emis­si­ons gene­ra­ted by the produc­tion of virgin plas­tics. We are plea­sed to support the company in crea­ting a more sustainable future,” said Markus Soli­bi­eda, Mana­ging Direc­tor at BASF Venture Capi­tal.