"For us, a bale of textile is the equivalent of a barrel of oil, meaning that waste fabric, not petroleum, is the raw material Epoch starts with."
"By using a cascade of enzyme treatments, Epoch can recover more than 90% of the desired monomers. The only thing that's left over after our process are dyes, which are captured and can be dealt with separately."
"The timing couldn't be better. In the last couple of weeks, the price of precursors for nylon 6,6 and for other materials have jumped on a spot price basis by as much as 150%."
"It's the original synthetic fiber. It's what the guys at DuPont were cooking up. The reason we still use it is it's really good at what it does."
Epoch Biodesign, founded by Jacob Nathan, focuses on breaking down plastic waste into monomers using enzymes. The company sources waste fabric as a raw material, which is more stable in price than oil. Epoch's enzyme treatments can recover over 90% of desired monomers, leaving only dyes as waste. The initial application targets nylon 6,6, a widely used synthetic material. Recent price increases for nylon precursors highlight the timeliness of this innovative approach to plastic recycling.
Read at TechCrunch
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