Narrator: Imagine a world where plastics solve problems rather than create them. They're made out of garbage,
they're compostable, they're endlessly recyclable. Scientists and entrepreneurs are in a race to solve humanity's addiction
to petroleum-based polymers that are clogging landfills and the ocean. And investors are taking note. More than $30 trillion are currently held in sustainable investments. So whoever gets there
first could be solving one of humanity's biggest issues. There's a startup that claims it can turn all kinds of trash into treasure, in the form of these plastic-like pellets. - Everything from foodstuffs,
like chicken bones, banana peels, leftovers, salad, your soup, the mixed plastic, the
cardboard, and the paper. Narrator: UBQ Materials
has raised $30 million from private investors to do just that. Humans create at least 3.5 million tons of solid waste each day. That's roughly the weight
of 1.5 million cars. At this dump south of Jerusalem, UBQ sorts and dries
the garbage, shreds it, and then grinds it into
this confetti-like material. That gets melted into a spaghetti and then chopped into pellets. UBQ sends those off to
conventional plastic manufacturers who can mix them with
regular plastic pellets. - It sounds like magic,
it looks like magic, but it's actually quite
sophisticated technology. Narrator: UBQ doesn't allow filming behind the doors where the
patented magic happens. We asked the company CEO if he would ever share his secret with the world. - Do you ask Coca-Cola
if they will release their formula so everybody
can drink Coca-Cola? I mean, why do you
protect your technology? Why does that patent
exist? Like, you know? Because you're a business,
and if you want to create a business out of what you're doing, you need to protect your know-how. Narrator: It's not unusual for patented technology to be kept secret, but this venture isn't without skeptics. Duane Priddy, CEO of the
Plastic Expert Group, called UBQ's claims "too good to be true," likening it to alchemy in a
2018 Associated Press article. When reached by phone in late 2019, a spokesperson said
Priddy had been instructed not to speak with Business Insider, but another spokesperson told
us he remained skeptical. UBQ has won over other
prominent scientists, though, including Oded Shoseyov, a Hebrew University biochemist
who serves on the board. - So I was skeptical, but after thorough
studying and experiments conducted by a former student of mine that actually joined the company
at a certain point of time, we realized that indeed,
there is something unique and novel in this technology. Narrator: UBQ hopes these recycling bins, presented with much fanfare
last summer in Virginia, are just a first step into the US market. - We hope that this is
going to be a ubiquitous solution to the very,
very difficult problem of waste management in the world. - I'm super excited that
they've picked Virginia to start their process and start talking, and bringing their technology
and innovation here. Narrator: From 2016 to 2018, sustainable, responsible,
and impact investing grew by more than 38%, and the appetite seems to be growing. - I think we're seeing rising regulatory pressures globally on bans around plastics and single-use plastics. But I also think we're continuing to see those social pressures. You're seeing more and
more of it on social media. It's really opened up
this issue to the masses. Narrator: An investment
director at Schroders, which manages hundreds
of billions of dollars in accounts all over the world, Hughes helps her clients choose sustainable initiatives to invest in. - I think part of your
investment due diligence is always to see that evidence physically. And it's also making sure that, yes, looking at their supply chain, tracking to all their suppliers. Narrator: In addition to
investing in this space, companies are also feeling the pressure to use plastic alternatives
in their packaging. These pellets being
pushed through an extruder are made of a polyester
material that's made from corn, but mainly petroleum-based. But they're compostable. - When I came on about six years ago to now, we've more than
quadrupled in size. Narrator: EcoSafe is a
Vancouver-based company that is one of the manufacturers of compostable film products intended to replace conventional plastics. - It's a lot harder to make
a bag that's going to get you the same performance
characteristics of regular plastic, but is also going to
perform at the compost and break down properly
and not contaminate soil and not contaminate that process. Narrator: Even though
the market is growing, there are still some major challenges. It all comes back to the
product's end of life. For a compostable cup
to break down quickly, it needs moisture levels and
temperatures to be just right, as they are in a composting facility. - Everything's biodegradable. I mean, we're biodegradable,
a cup is biodegradable, I mean, radioactive
waste is biodegradable. It just takes 5,000 years to biodegrade. Narrator: Frank Franciosi
at the US Composting Council explains how the market
has gone mainstream over the last decade. - You're seeing more and more stockholders going to companies and
saying, "You need to be green, you need to be more sustainable," and they're looking at
their production processes, instead of cradle-to-grave,
they're looking to develop products that are cradle-to-cradle, that are part of the circular economy. Narrator: In some ways,
compostable plastics face many of the same challenges as conventional recyclable plastics, a whole lot of responsibility
for the end consumer. Many of the plastics we
toss into the recycling bin, like straws and shopping bags,
are not recyclable at all. Others never get a second life because the chemicals
added to make them useful, like fillers or solvents, make
them impossible to recycle. The most recyclable plastic,
polyethylene terephthalate, usually doesn't get properly sorted. And even the 25% of it that does only goes through the
process once or twice before ending up in incinerators, landfills, or in the ocean. The ultimate goal, then, would be material that can be recycled over
and over and over again. Berkeley scientists
stumbled upon what they say is a formula for endlessly
recyclable plastics. - In chemistry labs,
you wash your glassware with acid washes or base washes. And what we noticed when
we cleaned up glassware contaminated with PDK resins is that an acid bath
would actually transform the polymer back into
its original monomer, and this was very unexpected to us. Narrator: In May 2019,
they announced a new family of mainly petroleum-based
polymers that can be broken down into molecular parts and then reassembled into different shapes,
textures, and colors again and again and again, without any loss of
performance or quality. They call it PDK. The next challenge is to commercialize it and make it scalable. PDKs are one-third plant-based, but they're hoping to get to 95%. They plan to develop PDK plastics with a wide range of uses for things like textiles, 3D printing, and foams. If PDKs were to systematically
replace everyday plastics, that would mean when
you place a plastic cup in the recycling bin, it would be much more
likely to have a new life, but you would still have to
take that extra step to recycle. Meanwhile, every day, nearly 1 million plastic beverage bottles are sold each minute around the world. Scientists estimate that right now, there are at least 5.25 trillion
pieces of plastic debris, weighing 270,000 tons,
floating in the oceans. By 2050, there will be so much plastic, it will outweigh the fish. And for now, the race to find
the perfect plastic continues.
