#Recycling / Circular Economy

2025-09-04

Samsara Eco opens first plant to scale circular plastics

Australian biotech innovator, Samsara Eco, has today opened its first plant, representing a significant milestone in the fight against plastic waste. The new plant will exponentially increase the company’s ability to produce virgin-identical, low-carbon circular materials like recycled nylon 6,6 and polyester with broad applications across apparel, packaging and automotives, at scale.

Exterior photography of Samsara Eco's first plant in Jerrabomberra, Australia. © 2025 Samsara Eco

Located in Jerrabomberra, regional Australia, the new headquarters and plant houses EosEco, Samsara Eco’s breakthrough enzymatic recycling technology. The technology uses AI-crafted enzymes to break down mixed plastics destined for landfill into recycled raw materials, ready for brands to incorporate into their next product line. The facility also houses expanded enzyme production facilities, allowing Samsara Eco to further build out its proprietary AI-powered enzyme discovery and development platform to find recycling solutions for a broader range of plastics.

“The opening of Jerrabomberra is a proud milestone for us and the broader circular economy. In just four years, we’ve scaled from bench research through to pilot, demonstration, and now our first plant. This is a true tipping point for circularity, shifting circular materials from early-stage innovation to mainstream reality.

“Brand demand and supportive new regulations are helping to clear the path forward. Our new facility will help brands deliver circularity with the capacity to produce the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of garments annually,” said Paul Riley, CEO and founder of Samsara Eco.

The circular materials made at Jerrabomberra will feature in upcoming product lines for global brands like lululemon, as well as pilot programs and trials with brands across textiles, automotive and packaging. The facility will also host world-first research including finding recycling solutions for the likes of spandex with The LYCRA Company, and our collaboration with Deakin University’s Recycling and Clean Energy Commercialisation Hub, part of the Australian Government’s Trailblazer Universities Program.

Today, only 10% of plastics are recycled and less than 1% of textiles are recycled into new textiles, perpetuating a linear economy. Samsara Eco aims to rewrite those numbers by recycling the unrecyclable to keep high-value materials out of the landfill.

“This isn't just about building a plant. It's about building a circular future where materials don’t have an end-of-life. Instead, they are infinitely recycled, reducing the world’s reliance on finite resources,” continued Riley.

Jerrabomberra provides a runway for Samsara Eco’s first nylon 6,6 commercial plant, which is being designed with engineering partner, KBR and due to open in Asia in 2028. The 20,000 tonne facility will be the first of a fleet of international commercial facilities, which will use Samsara Eco’s EosEco technology to turn waste into virgin-identical raw materials.

“Our Jerrabomberra plant marks a significant milestone in Australia’s advanced manufacturing and circular economy journey,” added Riley. “Our technology supports Australia’s net-zero targets while driving economic growth, resilience, and productivity. We're creating an entirely new industry to unlock major export opportunities and bring new skills to market, while also helping to position Australia as a leader in circular technology and a global exporter of circular materials.

“We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from our global investors including Main Sequence and Temasek, as well as the local community, who have supported us every step of the way to make Jerrabomberra a reality.”

Samsara Eco’s consortium of global investors i backed the opening commented on the milestone:

Carley Phillips, Principal, at Greycroft: “Samsara Eco’s new Jerrabomberra facility marks an important step towards scaling circular materials and showcasing the power of technology to transform industries. We are excited to continue supporting the team as they bring this innovation to market and drive the growth of the circular economy.”

Jan Marchewski, Associate at Hitachi Ventures said: “We’ve been deeply impressed by Samsara Eco’s ability to deliver every milestone on time and on budget – an extraordinary achievement for a deep tech company. The opening of the Jerrabomberra facility is a powerful testament to the team’s execution excellence. This hub will enable Samsara Eco to test AI-discovered enzymes at scale in collaboration with partners, further cementing its market leadership in enzymatic recycling.”

Phil Morle, Partner at Main Sequence commented: “Samsara Eco opening its first plant for infinite plastic recycling in regional Australia is an exemplar of Australian ingenuity leading the world to create industries for the next generation of growth. In this case, the first step to eradicating the problem of plastic waste.”

Samsara Eco and European Outdoor Group launch the Nylon Materials Collective

Australian biotech, Samsara Eco and the European Outdoor Group (EOG) today launched the Nylon Materials Collective, a collaboration designed to make high-performance, virgin-identical recycled nylon accessible to more outdoor brands and accelerate the industry’s shift toward a truly circular textiles future.

Industry heavyweights join Samsara Eco to accelerate its enzymatic recycling technology

Australian biotech innovator, Samsara Eco, has expanded its global leadership team with the appointment of material science and engineering veterans, Brock Thomas as Chief Innovation Officer and Isaac Iverson as Executive Director of Product. Thomas and Iverson bring decades of experience working within the polymer space in the US and will lead the scaling of the company’s enzymatic recycling technology and first-of-a-kind facilities.

ALADIN paves the way for circular and demand-driven textile production in Europe

Textile production can be organized sustainably by utilizing short supply chains and preventing overproduction. This can already be achieved today by intelligently connecting and efficiently utilizing existing infrastructure. At the same time, production becomes circular when innovative technologies and materials are used that enable high-quality recycling. The ALADIN research project, launched in May 2026 and co-funded with five million euros under the EU Horizon Europe program, is creating the conditions for this.

Ence and ShareTex begin initial testing of the ATENEA innovation project to promote textile recycling in Spain

Ence and ShareTex are making progress on the Atenea R&D project, which aims to develop a complete value chain for textile recycling in Spain. Specifically, the goal of the ATENEA project—which is funded by the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI)—is to connect all the necessary stages for the recovery of textile waste, from collection and management, through recycling and transformation into new raw materials, to their incorporation into new textile products.

DePoly Inaugurates its Showcase Plant in Monthey Switzerland

What if used plastic bottles, PET packaging material and polyester textiles could become raw materials just as high performing as virgin resources? That is the ambition of DePoly, a circular materials company based in Sion, Switzerland which inaugurated its Showcase Plant in Monthey on July 6th & 7th. The first depolymerization facility of its kind and scale in Switzerland, this industrial Showcase Plant represents a major milestone in the company's growth and its journey toward commercialization.

Commission clarifies rules on plastic bottles recycling

The European Commission today adopted new rules on recycling of single-use plastic beverage bottles made primarily of polyethylene terephthalate (PET bottles). These rules establish, for the first time, a methodology to calculate, verify and report chemically recycled content. This is part of the Commission’s December 2025 plastics package.

Katharina Obergruber appointed to the Management Board of Sandler AG

The Supervisory Board of Sandler AG has appointed Katharina Obergruber to the company’s Management Board. Effective September 1, 2026, the Board will consist of Philipp Ebbinghaus (CEO), Dr. Ulrich Hornfeck (currently CCO, future COO), and Katharina Obergruber (CCO). Katharina Obergruber, currently Chief Sales Officer Hygiene and member of the Management Team of Sandler AG, will assume responsibility for all sales activities as Chief Commercial Officer. She will assume this role from Dr. Ulrich Hornfeck, who will focus primarily on production and supply chain topics.

DyStar releases FY2025 sustainability report, marking a new milestone towards its 2030 targets

DyStar, a leading specialty chemicals company with more than a century of expertise in product development and innovation, today announced the release of its FY2025 Sustainability Report, marking a significant milestone in its sustainability journey and reinforcing its commitment to long-term value creation.

TERIS reaches milestone: Fraunhofer consortium develops new standards for tire analysis

In the “TERIS” project, the Fraunhofer institutes ICT, IGD, and IWM—led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability LBF—have reached a decisive milestone. For the first time, the teams aim to generate, analyse, and predict tire wear in the laboratory in a standardized and practical manner. As part of this milestone, results are now available on reference abrasion, particle analysis, tribological models, AI-based surface analysis, a test bench concept, and methods for accelerated aging and VOC detection. The tire industry, testing services, and environmental agencies will in future benefit from reliable, rapid laboratory procedures for emissions assessment.