chemical-recycling
(6)
ENCINA found a better feedstock. Then came the billion-dollar test.
Waste plastic gave ENCINA a new business. Chemical buyers gave it a market. Its next test is turning those agreements into a commercial plant.
Arduro
Arduro is a Pennsylvania-based recovered materials company that uses a patented, low-temperature chemical devulcanization process to reclaim high-quality carbon black, rubber and silica from end-of-life tires and industrial rubber waste. Its process breaks the sulfur cross-links in vulcanized rubber without cutting the carbon-carbon polymer backbone, letting manufacturers replace virgin raw materials with recovered ones at comparable performance and lower carbon footprint. Its first commercial product, ELDARIX r1000 recovered carbon black, is PAH-compliant and 6PPD-free.
Brian Bauer
Brian Bauer is the co-founder, president, and CEO of Resynergi, a Rohnert Park, California advanced-recycling company turning hard-to-recycle plastic into fuel and chemical feedstock with Continuous Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (CMAP). A Stanford-trained mechanical engineer who spent 25 years in telecom and semiconductors, Bauer co-founded Resynergi in 2015 with longtime colleague Jason Tanne after a decade of conversations about green technology. His pitch: microwaves heat plastic roughly 10-20 times faster than conventional pyrolysis, in a modular system small enough to deploy near the waste itself. In 2025, a partnership with Lummus Technology brought Resynergi's modules to commercial availability.
Novoloop
Novoloop is a California-based circular materials company that chemically upcycles hard-to-recycle plastic waste - the grocery bags, food films and mailers that mechanical recycling can't handle - into virgin-quality, high-performance polyols and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Using its proprietary Accelerated Thermal Oxidative Decomposition (ATOD) process and Lifecycling platform, the company turns post-consumer polyethylene into materials used in footwear, electronics and automotive goods, with a substantially lower carbon footprint than fossil-based equivalents. Founded in 2015 by childhood friends Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao, Novoloop has raised over $50 million and counts On's Cloudprime sneaker among its first commercial showcases.
Resynergi
Resynergi is a California advanced-recycling company that turns hard-to-recycle plastic into PyOil, a drop-in feedstock for new plastics and fuels. Its proprietary Continuous Microwave Assisted Pyrolysis (CMAP) technology runs inside modular, truck-shippable units that process plastic roughly 20 times faster than conventional pyrolysis, letting recyclers and manufacturers convert waste on-site instead of shipping it to landfills or oceans. Backed by Lummus Technology and Perenco's Taranis fund, Resynergi is moving from pilot to its first commercial-scale site.
Miranda Wang
Miranda Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Novoloop, a climate-tech materials company turning hard-to-recycle polyethylene waste into virgin-quality performance plastics. She started the venture as a Vancouver high-schooler after a field trip to a waste transfer station, gave a TED talk at 19, and has since built a chemical-upcycling process (ATOD) into a commercial-scale operation, earning the Rolex Award for Enterprise, a UN Young Champions of the Earth honor and the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award along the way.