Our Technology
Samsara Eco technology
Recycling based on plastic-degrading capabilities found in nature.
Samsara Eco uses enzymes which can attack complex plastics (polymers), reverting them back to their original chemical building blocks (monomers).
This is what makes our technology infinite:
by reverting complex polymers into simple monomers, we can make new, virgin-grade plastics without ever needing fossil fuels again. A truly circular process.
Nature is infinitely more diverse than human technology.
We have optimised enzymes found in nature to efficiently recycle PET and polyester plastics at scale.
But there are other plastics out there needing to be recycled, including plastic fibres (such as those found in textiles), soft plastics, and mixed plastics.
This is what makes Samsara Eco such a powerful platform technology:
We have the capability to discover and develop enzymes for any type of plastic, not just the ones our scientists have working today.
The Samsara Eco recycling process
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Prepare waste
Plastics waste is sourced and prepared for recycling by cold washing. Hard plastics are chipped, textiles (like polyester) are shredded.
Many advanced recyclers require additional hot washing and pre-processing steps for hard plastics, resulting in higher carbon dioxide emissions.
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Revert waste to original components
Our Samsara Eco enzymes revert the plastic waste from its complex state (polymers) back into its original monomer form.
This is called depolymerisation, and it’s how we recycle plastics at the molecular level.
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Purify original components
To prepare the brand new monomers for re-manufacture into new plastics, we separate them from any other additives, like colourants.
This is a game-changer in comparison to traditional recycling, which cannot recycle coloured plastics or mixed bales.
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Manufacture new from 100% waste
Our Samsara Eco recycled monomers can be used in re-manufacturing brand new plastics, including food-grade packaging.
We plan to lead a new era of plastics made from 100% waste for a circular plastics sector decoupled from fossil fuels.
Our Unique Technology
Unlike traditional, curb side recycling, our technology can handle hard-to-recycle plastics, contaminated plastics, mixed plastics, and plastics containing additives (like colours).
The resulting high-quality monomers can make brand new plastics. This is a huge problem with traditional recycling, which generates low-quality recycled plastics requiring virgin-plastic supplementation.
Minimal Environmental Impact
We can recover and reuse many of our chemicals and consumables, our water, and our energy. We are also able to perform infinite recycling without generating toxic or harmful byproducts. These differences make our technology carbon-neutral and affordable, with minimal environmental impact. This also means we can produce food grade plastics with the same characteristics as virgin plastics, one of the biggest challenges in recycling today.
Samsara Eco is recycling like we’ve never known it before…
Multiple plastics | minimal environmental impact | virgin-grade products | fast and scalable
The Samsara Eco sustainability process
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Climate first
Samsara Eco was created with one (massive) sole mission: solving the plastics crisis and delivering real climate repair in the process.
Unlike other advanced recycling technologies, this means that we do not consider technological innovations at the expense of climate repair.
It also means we’ve been designing for industrial scaling from the outset.
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Anti-greenwashing
Our industry is rife with greenwashing and we are adamant that we will not participate in this.
For this reason, “carbon-neutral”, “sustainable” and “low environmental impact” are not words we throw around lightly.
We have undertaken quantifiable, third party life cycle analysis, to inform our process and continuously minimise our environmental impact, and we will continue to do so as we grow and expand our technology.
We are also working on policies around accountability, product stewardship, carbon and plastics credits, and more.
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Beyond the technology
We know that delivering genuine climate repair is about more than our carbon-neutral technology.
It must include changes in policy and legislation, in social practices regarding plastics, and shifts in our own biases and blind spots.
Samsara Eco has social and political strategies built into our business to help us genuinely shift the dial on both the climate and plastics crises.
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We know that solving the plastics crisis is also about culture and policy. That’s why we created SAM.FOR.CHANGE. SAM is still in its earliest stages, and we encourage you to join us in making it a voice of the community. Sign our pledge (and watch this space) for more on how we are working to bring change in the political arena.
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We are constantly learning and we want to share our knowledge with you! Follow us to learn more about the myths of traditional recycling, greenwashing tactics that corporations employ, and the science behind our technology.