Lifecycling™ by Novoloop: Turning Trash into Treasure | Novoloop

Name of the submitted project or idea (in English or both English and your language)

Lifecycling™ by Novoloop: Turning Trash into Treasure
URL of a video introducing the work（under 5 minutes）

https://vimeo.com/882590737
Detailed explanation of the submitted project or idea (in English or both English and your language)

Overview:
The world’s first Lifecycling platform chemically transforms unrecyclable polyethylene (plastic bags, films, packaging, to name a few) into high-quality building blocks that are assembled into performance materials. Our process can produce these building blocks with a 70-90% lower CO2-eq footprint than conventional fossil processes. By building back up into performance materials, we upgrade 30-50x in value while delivering a carbon reduction of up to 41% on the final material. And we won’t stop there! Novoloop is proud to be at the forefront of the biggest challenge of our time by creating impactful technology. We believe sustainability should not be a luxury, and we’re committed to helping industries transition to a circular economy.

How the technology works:
We have invented a patent-protected process called Accelerated Thermal Oxidative Decomposition (ATOD). Polyethylene trash is fed into ATOD to produce base chemicals called dicarboxylic acid, which are one of the most prominent building blocks in materials such as nylons and polyurethanes. Novoloop then uses these building blocks to produce finished plastic resin ready for their next use.

Revenue Model:
Novoloop is vertically integrated and will sell upcycled base chemicals through to finished polymer resin.

Product Traction:
Our Lifecycled thermoplastic polyurethane product has been sampled by some of the biggest brand names in sporting goods, including ON Running, and we are working towards selling out demand for our first commercial facility.

Team:
We are led by our two co-founders Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao who, who have been working on solving the plastics problem since they met in high school in Vancouver, Canada. Now Novoloop has grown into a highly experienced team of 20 engineers and scientists, including a management team with 26 years of sales experience and experience scaling new hard tech through to commercial scale manufacturing.

Stage:
Novoloop is a Series A company.
How does your work address the 3 P’s (for Planet, for People, for Profit) for Sustainability?

Here at Novoloop we are addressing the 3 P’s by:
1. Planet: At humanity’s current plastic production rate of over 300 million metric tons per year, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Our Lifecycling platform enables the opportunity to fight against plastic pollution and help save our ecosystems from further damage. Our technology will give waste plastic a new life and allow consumers not to compromise on quality, cost, and sustainability.
2. People: To be successful, our local communities MUST be involved and have the opportunity to gain value. Our direct impact on our communities will include creating reliable, fair-paying manufacturing jobs and minimizing local landfilling or trash burning. Indirect impacts will also include decreasing plastic pollution in cities and ecosystems and creating well-paying jobs in the adjacent waste collection and sortation sector - which, in many geographies - is volatile and relies on under-paid waste pickers.
3. Profit: Novoloop creates value from waste by converting low-end film plastics into products with longer lifetimes and higher value than the trash we start with. This Lifecycling process is profitable without the need to rely on government subsidies or incentives. Novoloop believes in paying competitive rates for plastic waste to incentivize waste collection, bringing value back to communities.
Where (country, region, etc.) have you primarily carried out your project?

Menlo Park, California, USA and Surat, India
What is the timeline your project has taken place over?

2015 - Present
Keywords

#Lifecycling #CircularEconomy #PlasticWaste
If you have a website for your submitted project or idea, please provide the URL

https://www.novoloop.com/
If you have a social media account for your submitted project or idea, please provide the URL

https://www.linkedin.com/company/novoloopinc/
Special Prize Question 1: Is there a mechanism in place to inherit culture and industry as assets for people living in that area 100 or even 1000 years from now?

To achieve a lasting circular economy and save our planet, everyone must be involved, and it must become part of our culture and industries. We believe by investing and educating local communities in plastic recycling and creating better recycling depots worldwide, we can create a mechanism in which this industry will be an asset and a community income for the people living in the area for generations.
Special Prize Question 2: What is the positive impact on biodiversity? Is the project creating a cycle not just from a human-centered perspective but for the entire ecosystem?

Plastic pollution is destroying our ecosystems and biodiversity. At humanity’s current plastic production rate of over 300 million metric tons per year, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. Building and establishing our Lifecycling platform will divert plastic waste from landfills and our ecosystems. We are creating a new cycle that will not only positively impact humans and our entire ecosystem but also fight back against global warming by producing products with 70-90% less CO2-eq footprint than what is produced by current industries.
Special Prize Question 3: Are you enabling new forms of collaboration with others? New forms of collaboration might include cross-industry cooperation, co-creation with consumers, or role transformations within the supply chain.

Novoloop has formed new collaborations across the industry, from our supply chain including industrial plastic recyclers, to co-creation with consumer brands to produce sustainable products. One such partnership is with On Running where we helped create the first fully sustainable running shoe, Cloudprime.