DePoly: Breaking Down Plastic Waste into Virgin-Quality Raw Materials

DePoly: Breaking Down Plastic Waste into Virgin-Quality Raw Materials

Plastic waste remains one of the most persistent environmental challenges worldwide. Materials such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate), widely used in packaging and textiles, are technically recyclable but often end up in landfills or incineration due to contamination, mixed waste streams, or degradation during mechanical recycling. Conventional recycling methods typically require clean, sorted plastics and can reduce material quality with each cycle. DePoly, a Swiss cleantech startup founded in 2020 and spun out of research at EPFL, develops chemical recycling technologies designed to transform PET and polyester waste back into their original chemical building blocks. Instead of mechanically reprocessing plastics, DePoly’s process depolymerizes waste materials into purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and mono-ethylene glycol (MEG), the two core monomers used to manufacture PET plastics. These compounds can then be reused as high-purity feedstocks for the production of new plastics across a broad range of industrial applications.

Technology and Product

DePoly’s proprietary recycling process breaks down PET plastics and polyester fibres into their original chemical monomers. Unlike conventional mechanical recycling, which melts and reprocesses plastic, the company’s depolymerization method separates materials at the molecular level. The process converts mixed or contaminated PET waste streams into purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and mono-ethylene glycol (MEG), the same building blocks used to produce new PET plastics. These recovered monomers can be used as drop-in feedstocks for existing polymer production. A key feature of the technology is its ability to operate at room temperature without extensive sorting or cleaning of plastic waste, reducing energy requirements compared with many chemical recycling approaches.

PET plastic waste used as feedstock for Depoly’s chemical recycling process. (© DePoly)

Industrial Fit and Applications

Chemical recycling technologies are gaining attention as a complement to conventional mechanical recycling in the transition toward a circular plastics economy. Many plastic products, including coloured packaging and polyester textiles, are difficult to recycle using traditional methods. DePoly’s technology is designed to process mixed post-consumer and post-industrial PET waste streams that would otherwise be incinerated or discarded. The recovered monomers can be used by manufacturers to produce new PET packaging and polyester fibres, helping to reduce reliance on virgin fossil-based feedstocks. The company is scaling its technology through a demonstration facility in Monthey, Switzerland.

Labor process converting PET plastic waste into purified chemical monomers. (© DePoly)

Founding Team

DePoly was founded in 2020 by Samantha Anderson (CEO), Bardiya Valizadeh (CTO), and Christopher Ireland (Chief Scientific Officer). The company emerged from research at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. The founding team combines expertise in chemistry, materials science, and process engineering to advance circular plastics solutions.