Canberra-headquartered Australian biotech innovator Samsara Eco’s new plant in Jerrabomberra, New South Wales, is set to open mid-year as the company scales up production and further develops its suite of AI-crafted enzymes.

A first-of-its-kind nylon 6.6 enzymatic recycling plant is also planned to be operational by 2027 and the company has recently expanded its leadership team to support commercial growth.

Brock Thomas has joined the company as chief innovation officer and Isaac Iverson as executive product director. Both bring decades of experience working within the polymer space in the USA to the company and will lead the scaling of the company’s enzymatic recycling facilities.

Thomas joins from Eastman, where he spent almost 15 years working with tyre additives and speciality copolyesters, and led Eastman’s Polyester Renewal Technology platform He was most recently the director of plastics and circular development where he provided technology support to build the company’s polyester depolymerisation facility stream.

Iverson spent 15 years at Invista in a number of research and development and commercial roles, building out the company’s nylon product offering across various industries. 

“We’re at a pivot point in our scale-up journey and we need the best minds with both deep technical knowledge and commercial acumen to lead us forward,” said Paul Riley, CEO and founder of Samsara Eco.

“Enzymatic recycling has the potential to redefine circularity,” added Brock Thomas. “It is no longer limited by material composition but opens a range of possibilities to keep more plastics in circulation, without emitting additional carbon in the process. The science, technical and operations teams at Samsara Eco are second to none and I look forward to working closely with them as we scale operations and push the boundaries of innovation to help transform the future of sustainable materials.”

Since launching in 2021, Samsara Eco has led world-first discoveries in enzymatic recycling, pioneering the ability to recycle mixed plastics and fibres including nylon 6.6, nylon 6 and polyester to keep plastics and textiles in circulation and out of landfill. In 2024, it created the world’s first enzymatically recycled nylon 6.6 garment with lululemon, the Swiftly top, and also launched a jacket range made from its enzymatically recycled polyester.

www.samsareco.com