The World Is in a Polyester Crisis. One Company Is Trying to Recycle a Way Out

I’m on an overnight flight from New York to Frankfurt, Germany, and the accoutrements given to me in business class have a sustainable sheen. Both the polyester blanket and polyester flight kit proudly claim they are made of fabric spun from recycled plastic bottles. But doesn’t United Airlines know that recycled bottles are so yesterday’s green material? No, the new hot and hyped technology is recycling polyester into polyester. And I’m on my way to observe the most well-capitalized innovation in this burgeoning field, a chemical recycling process by a new startup, Reju. Only a half hour outside downtown Frankfurt at a drab industrial park are Reju’s temporary office and three half-constructed buildings that will serve as its industrial operations. In the middle will be R&D and education, to the right is the depolymerization plant, and to the left will be the repolymerization plant. Plastics, including polyester, are formed by taking individual chemicals called monomers and forming ... Read full article.