VIEWPOINTPlastic FantasticCanadian entrepreneur Miranda Wang, 25, is making it her business to transform a third of the world’s discarded plastic into new products Most of us don’t manage to recycle our own waste, but you are looking at recycling currently unrecyclable plastic – on a global scale. How did you first come up with your idea? Was there a single thing that triggered your desire to sort out the plastics challenge?
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My interest in the plastic problem began when I was a teenager. I have always been fascinated by what happens to used goods after they are discarded, and I have also always been an environmentalist.

When I was 16, I visited a waste transfer station, which is where garbage is compacted before being sent off to landfill. I was shocked to see how much plastic was ending up in landfill despite recycling bins being everywhere. It was also there that I got to see what plastics look like at the end of life, and realised that the current ways of recycling materials have very low tolerance for contaminated, dirty plastics, which inconveniently, is what all packaging waste looks like.

Most of the time, I plan my goals quarter by quarter and live my day one after another and see incremental changes. I have the mindset that this is going to be for the long haul. It’s incredible to see how much individuals can stretch and evolve in a relatively short period of time if they hone in on a certain area of their life.

[From the very start, (my high school best friend and partner)] Jeanny [Yao] and I have always known that we didn’t want a typical corporate job, and we wanted to make solutions that impact the world. If only nine percent of the world’s plastic is currently being recycled, don’t you feel as though you have an impossible task ahead?
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Plastics are very complex – for one, they are not just one material, they are many with all sorts of variations. We have not yet found the most effective ways to deal with plastic waste, that is why only nine per cent of plastics actually get recycled and 91 per cent goes to landfills, incinerators (becoming greenhouse gases), and oceans. The root of the problem is that we lack economical recycling technologies for many types of commonly produced packaging plastics and because of that, we lack markets for waste plastic scraps.

Why are we still using plastic packaging that says ‘currently not recycled’? Should this be outlawed?
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Part of the problem is that packaging doesn’t read ‘currently not recycled’. In fact, most of them have the recycling logo on them, so people think it means they do get recycled. But that’s a fallacy. The recycling logo only means that it is ‘theoretically recyclable’. There’s a difference between recyclable versus actually recycled. And this gap is the problem and the reason why consumers have no idea that only nine per cent of plastic is being recycled.

Recycling is also not just a matter of educating consumers to put the plastic into the correct bin. This is because plastics like LDPE (low density polyethylene) are simply not economical to recycle
'I have the mindset that this is going to be for the long haul...' today using mechanical processes, so no matter which bin they go into, no one will recycle them.

Outlawing pollutants like CFCs has been very effective in the past, but how do you ban a common material that is cheaper than paper and glass and is produced at 340 million tons per year? Laws around EPR [extended producer responsibility] are helpful, but they alone won’t solve the problem.

New innovations for smart delivery systems to reduce packaging consumption, biodegradable packaging for throwaway uses, and chemical recycling technologies like ours to circulate the resources trapped in the material will be key to overcoming this problem in human history. Are you planning to open source your project so it can be expanded quicker?
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We’re very much aware of the power we hold through this invention we’ve developed and the risks of things going wrong. Because of this, we currently do not foresee open-sourcing our technology. Both its development and scale-up need to be carefully controlled and developed in a way that integrates with existing industry. How do we start to reduce the amount of non-recyclable plastics still being produced?
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The growth of the global human population is actually the biggest driver of plastic production increase. Our modern lives depend on it; it is our gift and burden. Plastic volumes are expected to double in a matter of 15-20 years from the current 340 million tons per year mark. Many of the countries expecting populations to grow lack basic infrastructure and as a result, people need more single-use packaging for basic necessities like drinking water, food, and soap. With the increase in natural disasters due to climate change, plastics will also enable resource delivery. To reduce the volume of plastics produced, we need to control all of the problems listed above.

Are you optimistic we can get on top of this problem?
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Within 50 years, yes. The question is how much will be destroyed or how much will it cost as the problem worsens every day.
What can we do as consumers to reduce our own plastic waste?
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Bringing your own cloth bag to the shops, keeping your leftovers in glass containers rather than plastic boxes, using a water filter instead of buying bottled water, carrying around a metal straw and spoon – these are much easier to do than you’d think. It takes a little bit of foresight and a handy place to keep things by habit, but these are impactful things that anyone can do.

What will be the impact of winning the Rolex Awards on your work with BioCellection?
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We are still completing the last steps of proof of concept and proving out our pilot demonstration, so we are still in the realm that financial investors consider too early to fund. It can be make or break time for a start up. Rolex is helping us bridge the gap so that we can access traditional funding to scale at the next stage. It is also enabling us to complete our technology development independent of strategic interests from the industry. This allows us to develop what we believe the world needs as opposed to something a chemical company will want to acquire.

As well as a huge honour, becoming a Rolex Awards for Enterprise Laureate helps put me under the magnifying glass a little bit and get me to pick up the pace as I follow through on the commitments I’ve made towards solving the plastic problem.

rolex.org/rolex-awards