recycling

Humble keeps excess inventory out of the Philippines’ landfills • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 8, 2022Posted in circular economy, Climate, green, Humble Sustainability, Philippines, recycling, seedstars, Southeast Asia, StartupsNo Comments

Excess inventory, including returned items, from e-commerce, logistics and retail companies often ends up being disposed. Manila-based Humble Sustainability is a circular economy startup that wants to keep it out of the Philippines’ landfills. Since its launch, it has processed more than 150,000 items like clothing, consumer electronics and household appliances that are either resold through Thrift, its Shopee storefront, or passed onto B2B recyclers and resellers. The company announced today it has raised $750,000 in an oversubscribed seed round led by Seedstars International Ventures, with participation from iSeed Ventures and angel investors including Ula co-founder Alan Wong, Sagar Achanta (who has held product leadership roles at Amazon), Booking.com and Disney+, and investors Paco Sandejas and Richard Eldridge. Humble will use the funding to expand its network of partners and buyers, and grow its team, including hiring department heads. The company also plans to bring its tech development fully in-house and start work on long-term initiatives like a carbon footprint tracker. Humble Sustainability founders Niña Opida and Josef Werker. Image Credits: Humble Sustainability Humble was founded in 2021 by CEO Josef Werker and COO Niña Opida. Werker told ZebethMedia that the two met five years ago, after holding leadership positions at different startups, and wanted to see how tech innovation could be applied to the planet. The first version of Humble was a circular trading solution for children’s clothing, before it expanded into other items. “Neither of us are environmental scientists or sustainability experts at all,” Werker said. “We simply had a love for the earth and spotted an opportunity to apply our little experience of building businesses towards it.” Humble has worked with 20 companies so far. The process of getting items starts by receiving inventory for assessment, so Humble can see what condition they are in and figure out their value (as the company grows, it will automate parts of the quality control process). Then it decides whether to list items on Thrift, or sell them in bulk to its B2B network. Once their plans are approved, they sign an agreement with clients, who can monitor the status of their items and receive money from their sales. Humble plans to launch a live dashboard on its B2B platform so clients can track revenue, inventory and environmental impact in real time. Werker says without Humble, unwanted inventory would either go to a traditional liquidator (for higher-value items) or end up in a landfill. There are other solutions like internal employee sales, but those only account for a small percentage. “With Humble, it’s full consolidated,” he said. “We will take everything, ensuring that nothing ends up in a landfill. The good-quality items are on Thrift and high value is extracted, everything else is properly brought back into circularity through our B2B network and we will extract value that can be passed back to the client.” All of the investors in Humble’s seed round are actively involved in the business. For example, Seedstars introduced Humble to people its international network that the company has closed deals with, said Werker. Humble is also participating in Seedstars’ three-month growth track program. Wong and Achanta have worked together at different companies, including Amazon, Booking.com and Ula and are guiding Humble with advice on its tech development and long-term roadmap. In a statement, Seedstars partner Patricia Sosrodjojo said, “We are delighted to support Humble in the journey to reduce waste and promote circular living. Humble is a great fit to Seedstars’ thesis of supporting early-stage companies that can create meaningful impact with an attractive business model.”

Samsara Eco raises $54M AUD for its “infinite plastic recycling” tech • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 1, 2022Posted in Australia, Climate, green tech, plastics, recycling, Samsara Eco, StartupsNo Comments

Samsara Eco, an Australian startup that uses enzyme-based technology to break down plastic into its core molecules, announced today it has raised $54 million AUD (about $34.7 million USD) in Series A funding. The company is planning to build its first plastic recycling facility in Melbourne later this year, with the target of full-scale production by 2023. Investors in the round include Breakthrough Victoria, Temasek, Assembly Climate Capital, DCVC and INP Capital. Existing investors like deep-tech fund Main Sequence, Woolworths Group’s W23 and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) also participated. Samsara launched last year in partnership with the Australian National University. ZebethMedia last covered the startup when it raised $6 million earlier this year. The company’s enzyme-based technology breaks down plastics into their molecular building blocks to turn into new plastic products—which can in turn be broken down again, creating what Samsara refers to as infinite plastic recycling. Samsara’s new funding will be used for expansion, building its library of plastic-eating enzymes and funding its first commercial facility, which it says will be able to infinitely recycle 20,000 tons of plastic starting in 2024. It will also grow its engineering team and expand operations into Europe and North America. CEO and founder Paul Riley said that since March, when Samsara’s previous round of funding was announced, it’s been focused on expanding its enzyme library, which is now capable of depolymerizing several different types of plastic. Its also worked with partners to develop market solutions using Samsara’s plastic-recycling tech. Samsara’s tech is capable of breaking down plastic into its core molecules in minutes, regardless of color, type and state, said Riley. Its Melbourne facility will first recycle PET plastic and polyester, which Riley says accounts for about a fifth of plastic created annually. Its long-term mission is to recycle mixed bale plastics and advance its tech to the point where every kind of plastic can be infinitely recycled. “Given the scale of the plastics crisis, our vision was always to scale infinite plastic recycling as fast as possible,” he said. “For us, this capital raise was about partnering with those that bring industry expertise and commitment to addressing one of the world’s most prominent climate challenges—which is fossil-made plastic—and, in the process, reducing plastic pollution by closing the loop.” Samsara is also preparing for the launch of its first enzymatically recycled packaging, in partnership with Woolworths Group. The packaging will be on shelves in Woolworths’ supermarkets next year, moving the company toward its goal of recycling 1.5 million tons of plastic per year by 2030. Woolworths Group has committed to turning the first 5,000 tons of recycled Samsara plastic into packaging for its branded products, like vegetables and bakery trays. Riley said Samsara’s tech is highly tolerant of contamination and can recycle colored plastics, mixed plastics and multi-layered plastic, which means it has applications across a wide range of industries, including packaging, fashion, automative, medical, electronics and construction. The fashion industry accounts of about 10% of global CO2 emissions. Australia is the second-highest consumer of textiles per person in the world, Riley said, which gives Samsara the opportunity to recycle discarded fast fashion pieces in the form of mixed fiber textiles, reducing the amount of clothing that ends up in landfills. “As we expand our library of plastic-eating enzymes, the opportunity for infinite plastic recycling will continue to grow across all these industries, meaning we’ll never have to produce plastic from fossil-fuels again,” Riley said.