Novoloop announces plans to advance plastic scrap chemical recycling

Advanced recycling startup Novoloop, based in Menlo Park, California, has announced it raised $11 million in Series A financing. The funding will go toward expanding the company’s plastics chemical recycling process, called accelerated thermal-oxidative decomposition (ATOD), and bringing its production process to scale.

“Plastics are not going away anytime soon, so we need to innovate to close the gap between what is produced and what is repurposed,” says Miranda Wang, Novoloop co-founder and CEO. “Our vision is to scale up our technology’s processing ability into the tens of thousands of tons in the next three to four years.”

The round of financing was led by Envisioning Partners with participation from Valo Ventures and Bemis Associates. Earlier investors who joined the round included SOSV, Mistletoe and TIME Ventures.

The company says ATOD is a proprietary processing technology that breaks down polyethylene (PE) into chemical building blocks that can be synthesized into high-value products. The process will be used to create Oistre, a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) for use in high-performance applications, such as footwear, apparel, sporting goods, automotive and electronics.

The company says Oistre is the first TPU made from postconsumer PE that matches the performance characteristics of virgin TPUs made from petrochemicals. At the same time, Oistre's carbon footprint is up to 46 percent smaller than conventional TPUs.

Development for the partnership with Bemis will begin in March. Wang says the product will first be used by Bemis Associates, a brand consultant based in Shirley, Massachusetts, for its Sewfree on Demand line as a possible replacement for virgin petroleum-based thermoplastic polyurethane.

“Novoloop has been a pioneer in the chemical transformation of plastic waste into high-performance chemicals and materials since [it was founded in] 2015,” Bemis says in a news release. “By strategically investing in environmentally focused technologies, Bemis will continue to solidify its position as a leader in sustainability and to offer a variety of environmentally friendly products to the market.”

Novoloop was founded when Wang and her business partner, Jeanny Yao, were undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Toronto. Before that, the two got the idea to start the project after visiting a city waste transfer station where they realized how much material was not being recycled.

While Oistre will be one of the main products the company makes, Wang estimates there are various products ATOD derivatives can produce, including various adhesives, paint and nylons. Wang says the overall market of products Novoloop can make exceeds $140 billion.

She says Novoloop is working on developing relationships with material recovery facilities like GreenWaste Recovery in San Jose, California, to source the material used to make Oistre. Novoloop and GreenWaste Recovery plan to launch a new project later this year.

Novoloop says it currently is sampling and taking preorders for Oistre 65A, a soft-grade polyester TPU for injection molding especially suitable for footwear applications. Higher durometer grades of Oistre TPU will be introduced soon.