Start-up secures Series A funding for plastic recycling technology

Scottish start-up, ReVentas, has secured Series A funding to enable the scaling of its plastic recycling technology from pilot plant to commercial operation over the next three years.

The Series A round was backed by Orlen VC, Beiersdorf Venture Capital, and the Scottish Enterprise, Scotland’s national economic development agency.

ReVentas’s technology is designed to chemically recycle polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), which make up around half of all plastic produced. Despite 400 million tonnes of plastic waste being produced each year, the majority of plastic isn’t recyclable due to complex composition of materials, colour, or contamination.

Tom Rose, CEO of ReVentas, commented: “Plastics are an essential part of our world, but so far, the industry has failed to provide workable solutions at-scale to deal with the impact they have on our environment. ReVentas are providing a simple solution which can change this, ensuring the waste we produce today, can and will be directly used in the products we buy tomorrow.” 

How does ReVentas’s plastic recycling technology work?

The chemical recycling process developed by ReVentas uses a solvent to rapidly dissolve PE and PP, filtering the plastic of all contaminants and producing a ‘like-new’ plastic to replace virgin plastic.

The plastic waste is first shredded and granulated, with all large non-polymer contaminants removed, before being fed into a dissolution vessel which dissolves the polymers into a liquid slurry.

The polymer-solvent slurry is then passed through a series of filters removing any solid particulates and any dissolved contaminants such as odours, VOCs and chemicals present in the feedstock.

The clean surrey is separated from the solvent, and then dried and extruded to form pellets ready for use in new applications, such as packaging, automotives, construction, and textiles. The solvent is sent to be reused in the process.

According to ReVentas, this process operates at low temperatures and pressures, which reduces the cost of production while achieving an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions over virgin plastic production.

Plant opening planned for 2027

The funding will allow the development of the start-up’s first commercial recycling plant, which aims to be operational in 2027 and process around 10,000 tonnes of material each year.

ReVentas also has plans to increase capacity to an additional 140,000 tonnes by 2031.

Discussing the investment, Marek Garniewski, President of the Management Board of Orlen VC, said: “EU regulations mandate that 10 per cent of packaging materials must come from recycled sources by 2030. However, Europe faces significant shortages of high-quality secondary raw materials suitable for reuse in production. Meeting this obligation will be a challenge, but we see it as a business opportunity.”

Ascan Voswinckel, Head of Venture Capital at Beiersdorf, added: “We strongly believe in the potential of the ReVentas technology as it bridges a crucial gap in circular PE/PP usage. As investor and strategic partner, we engage with leading startups like ReVentas along the entire value chain to drive innovative, more circular solutions for us and the cosmetics industry.”