Invest Puerto Rico, Newlab partner to reduce waste

San Juan, Puerto Rico-based Invest Puerto Rico (InvestPR), the island’s business attraction organization, is partnering with Newlab, Brooklyn, New York, to convert unmanaged or landfilled items, such as sargassum seaweed, plastics and tires, into new value-added products.    

With 29 operating landfills and more waste generated per capita than the U.S. average, the island is grappling with an unprecedented waste crisis. InvestPR and Newlab are recruiting entrepreneurs and early-stage companies to pilot innovative waste conversion solutions. Through technology and collaboration, the partners will unlock the potential for renewable life cycles of materials, such as end-of-life tires, waste plastics and sargassum seaweed.  

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Sargassum seaweed has been accumulating in recent years and affecting the coastal ecosystems and communities of Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, Mexico and Florida, but InvestPR says it has the potential to be converted into bio-based plastics, fibers and other materials.

Tires, another damaging waste stream in Puerto Rico; up to 18,000 tires being are disposed of daily on the island. The project aims to transform discarded tires into valuable resources, reduce landfill waste and contribute to a circular economy. There are significant import and export constraints on the island for plastics. By harnessing advancements in recycling technologies and circular design principles, the partners seek to make plastic recycling viable in Puerto Rico to reduce plastic waste issue and the island’s dependence on imports.

Through research, stakeholder engagement and market analysis, Newlab is opening the door to new markets and contributing to a more sustainable Puerto Rico.    

“Our partnership with Newlab represents a significant step forward in our efforts to promote sustainable economic development and innovation in Puerto Rico,” InvestPR CEO Ella Woger-Nieves says. “We believe that this collaboration will help to alleviate the island’s problem with waste management through innovative solutions, create new economic opportunities for local businesses and serve as a model for other communities facing similar challenges. This initiative is definitely a game-changer for Puerto Rico.” 

Newlab brings specializes in turning transformative ideas and technologies into real-world solutions for critical sustainability challenges across materials, energy and mobility. Previous collaborations include working with Ford, Verizon, LG, Orsted, the New York City Economic Development Corp. and Mercado Libre, among others, to develop breakthrough solutions for global challenges.    

“The collaboration with Invest Puerto Rico is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the power of innovation in finding solutions for common global problems such as waste management,” Newlab Chief Product Officer Satish Rao says. “We believe that by focusing on under-utilized resources, such as sargassum and waste streams such as plastics and tires, we can make a meaningful impact on Puerto Rico’s waste crisis. We aim to develop practical and scalable solutions that turn these materials into valuable resources and help the island become a global leader in sustainable innovation.”  

The initiative has so far included scoping and discovery research, convening stakeholders, pilot proposal gathering and evaluation, and partnership development. The effort has laid the groundwork for the execution of pilot projects, which are scheduled to be launched in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, including evaluation and refinement of the developed solutions.