SAMSARA ECO: Enzymatic technology for infinite plastic recycling

The detrimental impact of plastic waste on our environment has become undeniable and has captured the attention of activists and policymakers around the globe. While plastic was once a revolutionary invention and remains a critical material in many industries; current trends in production and consumption are far from sustainable.

Traditional recycling practices, despite good intentions, often rely on ‘downcycling’ plastics, diminishing the quality and structural integrity of the material with each recycling cycle and eventually leading them to landfill.

But envirotech company Samsara Eco is leveraging the power of plastic-eating enzymes to break down plastics into their individual building blocks. Once the plastic has been broken down into ‘monomers’, the building blocks can be used to create new high-grade plastic products, much like dismantling a Lego house into its individual parts and using them to construct a new structure. The process creates the potential for infinite plastic recycling in closed-loop cycles.

We sat down with Eleanor Baldwin of Samsara Eco, who discussed the organisation's ambitions to reduce plastic waste and innovate for a circular economy.