Vanessa Vongsouthi, Protein Engineering Lead & Research Founder at Samsara Eco, told Cool Green Tech that only a limited volume of waste plastic such as clear and clean PET bottles can currently be converted into high-quality recycled PET, and even then, only for a limited number of cycles before structural integrity is lost and further recycling is no longer viable.
“For this reason, the solution must target the rest of our waste that is currently too challenging to recycle using traditional methods: the contaminated, coloured, multi-layered, mixed plastics that are accumulating in landfills and degrading the natural environment. That’s exactly where Samsara fits in.”
To speed its journey, in March, Samsara Eco raised A$6 million in funding from the Australian government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation, W23 – the venture capital fund of Australian supermarket giant Woolworths, and Main Sequence, Australia’s deep tech investment fund founded by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO.
The funding will go towards the construction of a 20,000-tonne recycling plant in Melbourne or Sydney, and help it grow its team of scientists and its enzyme library.
The company has so far partnered with Tennis Australia to recycle 5000 plastic bottles generated during the Australian Open. The company is also collaborating with Woolworths, with the pair planning to trial the technology in the supermarket’s own packaging for products such as home brand mini tomatoes in the next two years.
While Samsara’s enzymes are currently only being used on a small scale at ANU’s lab, plans are to establish a commercial recycling plant in the next two years.