Cecilia

Cecilia Energy breaks plastic waste down with microwaves and turns it into clean hydrogen and carbon nanotubes. Its reactor runs on electricity, so it can operate on renewable power, and it is modular enough to site where the waste is. Around 90% of plastic is never recycled, much of it cannot be recycled by any current method, and half of all plastic that has ever existed was made in the last fifteen years.

Chemical recycling has generally meant enormous capital projects producing pyrolysis oil at thin margins, which need scale to break even and mostly haven't reached it. Microwaves heat selectively at the molecular level rather than cooking a vessel from the outside, which takes both energy and capital out of the process. The products are worth more than fuel: hydrogen, and a carbon material industry wants. Plastic's endgame has to be worth something to someone, or it stays in the ground and the ocean.