Ambitious innovators are driving forward new solutions in material science that will contribute towards a circular economy.

At the Rethinking Materials summit on May 19-20, eight start-ups will showcase breakthrough technologies for combatting pollution and waste, through innovation in raw materials and end-of-life re-use and recycling.

The start-ups are all committed to transforming the supply chain, yet each offers a unique approach to making a contribution.

Scalable bio-based solutions to be presented include Algaeing from Israel’s Algalife.

“We are developing innovative natural and healthy pigments and fibres both from the same microorganisms – algae,” explains the company’s CEO Renana Krebs.

Gelatex Technologies of Estonia says its patent-pending nanofibre technology can bring the use of bio-based nanofibres to mass-scale for applications such as cultured meat or filtration, where slow production and high prices have so far made such developments.

Carbonauten of Germany has developed a system that immediately and effectively reduces CO2 emissions and costs for companies and municipalities.

“We are establising decentralised sites around the world in the immediate vicinity of biomass residues, waste materials or energy consumers,” says co-founder Christina Granacher.

The UK company Xampla is developing a plant-protein material as a 100% natural replacements plastic.

 “Our next generation material performs like synthetic polymers, but decomposes naturally and fully, without harming the environment,” says CEO Simon Hombersley, CEO.

Technology enabling re-use, recycling and resource recovery will also play a pivotal role in developing a more sustainable loop for materials.

New companies developing circular solutions at Rethinking Materials include Norway’s Empower, which uses digitisation, cloud-data and blockchain technology to store and facilitate the seamless sharing of information about plastic waste and map waste flows to ensure that the plastic ends up where it has the highest value and the lowest cost to society.

“Our mission is to ensure that all materials have a value and can be tracked from production to new resources, and back into new sustainable products again, with a vision to close the tap on plastic waste and recreate a world without waste, a truly circular economy,” says founder and CEO Wilhelm Myrer.

Genecis Bioindustries of Canada is a bio-cleantech company which is reprogramming bacteria to make premium materials from low-value organic waste. The company’s first product line is based on high-quality biodegradable polymers that can be used to make thermo-resistant packaging, compostable coffee pods and 3D printing filaments. By developing a technology platform that uses organic waste as the feedstock, Genecis is able to dramatically reduce the cost of producing these plastics, while eliminating the use of fossil fuels in production.

Magnetisable inks for enhanced recycling are being developed by Magnomer in the USA, and can be seamlessly integrated into current packaging, to improve separation in existing recycling operations.

Scindo is a UK cleantech start-up harnessing the power of enzymes to recycle difficult materials.

“We believe that finding novel ways to break down plastic polymers into useful molecular components has the potential to make plastic waste one of the cheapest feedstocks available, and one of the most impactful in terms of circularity and carbon recycling,”explains co-founder Gustaf Hemberg.

Many more game-changing early and mid-stage companies will participate at the virtual Rethinking Materials Summit on May 19-20, which will bring together brands and retailers, plastics producers, converters, manufacturers, technology providers, regulators, start-ups and investors for two days of high impact online networking and knowledge exchange.

The full programme and registration details are available at:

www.rethinkingmaterials.com