As the world electrifies, the oil and gas industry is counting on plastics to drive profits in the future. But not if Jacob Nathan has anything to say about it.

Nathan started searching for a way to break down plastics when he was still in high school. Now, as founder and CEO of Epoch Biodesign, he has found a way to use a series of enzymes to “transform this unnatural waste” into a form ready to make more plastic, he told TechCrunch.

“For us, a bale of textile is the equivalent of a barrel of oil,” Nathan said, meaning that waste fabric, not petroleum, is the raw material Epoch starts with. And unlike a barrel of oil, the price of that feedstock won’t depend on the weekly whims of world leaders.

Epoch’s approach centers on breaking down pre- and post-consumer plastic waste into monomers — the basic building blocks from which plastic is made. To do that, it relies on enzymes, the molecular machinery of cells. But because biology can be fickle, the company uses only the enzymes, not the microbes that produce them. To source the compounds, Epoch is working with industrial suppliers, which already make enzymes by the ton.

By using a cascade of enzyme treatments, Epoch can recover more than 90% of the desired monomers. “The only thing that’s left over after our process are dyes, which are captured and can be dealt with separately,” Nathan said.

The process is first being applied to nylon 6,6, a high-strength synthetic material that’s used in everything from clothing to airbags to carpets to climbing ropes.

“It’s the original synthetic fiber. It’s what the guys at DuPont were cooking up. The reason we still use it is it’s really good at what it does. We can’t really replace it in all these applications,” Nathan said.

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The timing couldn’t be better, Nathan said. “In the last couple of weeks, the price of precursors for nylon 6,6 and for other materials have jumped on a spot price basis by as much as 150%,” Nathan said. By starting with waste textiles rather than petroleum, Epoch can sidestep that volatility entirely. “When we’re detaching the production of materials from the extraction, refinement, and volatility that comes from fossil carbon, we can create much more consistency.”

That pitch has resonated with investors, including apparel giant Lululemon, which itself produces mountains of clothing made from plastics. Lululemon recently participated in a $12 million funding round that also included Exantia, Happiness Capital, Kompas VC, and Leitmotif.

The raise will help fund a demonstration-scale facility near Imperial College London; the company plans to follow that with a commercial scale facility that it expects to bring online in 2028 and that should be capable of producing 20,000 metric tons per year of monomer.

Once that’s at full capacity, Nathan said Epoch might start working on recycling other plastics. The technology “can be repurposed for different types of materials and plastics,” he said. “Nylon 6,6 will reach maturity before the others, but we’ve got some exciting stuff in the pipeline.”

Topics

Climate, epoch biodesign, Exantia Capital, Exclusive, Happiness Capital, Kompas, Leitmotif, lululemon, plastic recycling

Tim De Chant

Senior Reporter, Climate

Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor.

De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing tim.dechant@techcrunch.com.

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