By Sara Miller, NoCamels -
An Israeli startup has found a way to turn plastic waste into black gold – by transforming it back into the crude oil that it originally came from.
Plastic Back uses a proprietary method that takes discarded polyvinyl chloride, better known as PVC, and breaks it down into its components of crude oil and chlorine, both of which are then reused.
“Plastic is made from oil, so we are converting it back to what it was made from,” Plastic Back co-founder and CEO Tal Cohen tells NoCamels.
“And once we’re able to do that, we can use that oil in the production of new plastics or different petrochemical applications.”
PVC is ubiquitous in our lives. It is the world’s third-most widely produced synthetic plastic polymer and used for multiple applications in multiple industries, including for pipes in construction, medical devices and packaging.
And, according to Cohen, although some 40 million tons of the polymer are produced every year, the long-standing inability to fully recycle it has a direct impact on the green credentials of those industries that use it.
Almost all substances in the world – including the oil used to create plastic – are made from carbon, Cohen explains, and Plastic Back‘s chemical process is able to attack the carbon bonds of the PVC and break them down into their former form.
Plastic Back also treats the chlorine that is present in PVC, which Cohen says has always been “the bottleneck in the recycling processes” due to the difficulty in repurposing it. This means while PVC is one of the most commonly produced plastic polymers, the chlorine content has it made least recycled.
The company’s dechlorination process transforms it into salts that according to Cohen have a range of applications, including the production of new PVC.
“Because we’re able to take both the carbon and the chlorine content, Plastic Back is the first chemical company that is able to do the complete cycle for PVC,” he says.
Other companies are working on ways to convert plastics back to oil, but Cohen says that they are mostly in early stages of development and are struggling to actually recycle PVC.
“Existing solutions are able to [treat] one or maybe two percent of PVC in their recycling processes,” he says.
“We’ve shown that we can take up to 100% PVC, which was never seen before.“
Furthermore, Cohen explains, the other solutions involve a conversion process that relies on very high temperatures of between 500 and 1,000 degrees Celsius to break down the carbon, which is extremely energy inefficient. Plastic Back’s solution, however, only needs to heat the substance to 100 degrees Celsius.
It places the PVC in a reactor, which Cohen compares to a big silo, where it is heated up and, due to Plastic Back’s unique process, “the magic happens.”
The company has two sources for the PVC it recycles – plastic manufacturing companies and recycling facilities that try to treat the waste themselves.
“They recycle what they can, and the rest, instead of being sent to landfills, can come to Plastic Back,” says Cohen.
By removing waste from landfills, the company is also helping to mitigate a growing problem around the world.
For according to the World Bank, 2.01 billion metric tons of municipal solid waste are produced every year – an amount expected to rise to 3.4 billion metric tonnes by 2050 – and at least 33 percent of it is not managed in an environmentally safe manner.
The company was founded in 2018, when Cohen, who has a background in marine biology and chemistry, was looking for a business opportunity that tackled environmental issues.
“I got a chance to see what plastic pollution really looks like in the ocean,” he says. “And I knew I wanted to do something related to that.”
Cohen became aware of the technology that was at the time being developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and reached out to its developers.
“I thought that they had reached a very good proof of concept, showed good potential and a good market, and we decided to go for it,” he recalls.
“Once we found that gap in the industry, and also our technology relevance, that was our market fit.”
Cohen praises the technology transfer companies created by academic research institutions, including Yissum of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which he says should be a priority for entrepreneurs seeking new opportunities that have economic and technological feasibility.
Funding initially came from an angel investor who Cohen says “really believed” in the company. After that, the proof of concepts attracted further funding, including from the Israel Innovation Authority and Ministry of Energy, and later investment came from venture capital funds both in Israel and Europe.
Cohen says that the past year or so has been a challenge, with widespread protests in Israel over proposed judicial reforms and the ongoing war that started with a massive terror attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7.
“Israel is a very small country, so everyone was affected, either firsthand or secondhand, by the situation,” he says. “It does change the atmosphere in the lab, in the company, in the country… but also brings people together.”
Cohen believes that the fact that the company has managed to stay on course for reaching its milestones during this period has also proved its viability to current and future external partners.
Plastic Back is now fine-tuning the R&D process at its base in Ness Ziona, a town just outside Tel Aviv that has become a favored location for Israeli innovation.
And while the company has its eye on making inroads in Europe, the United States and Asia, it will maintain its base in Israel.
“We’re an Israeli company,” says Cohen. “Most of the R&D will stay here, and while we do realize that we will have a footprint in these locations, we’ll continue to stay an Israeli company.”
One of those locations is Thailand, where Plastic Back has an agreement with SCG Chemicals, a major producer of PVC. Other similar petrochemicals companies have shown an interest in the startup, and the first pilot, expected to begin in 2025, will be in association with one of them.
“We are targeting to have 100,000 tons of PVC treated per annum by 2028,” he says. “So that means we have to really get working!”
