Waste into plastic… Business model found in trash

UBQ Materials, an Israeli start-up, is in the business of making plastic raw materials from waste piles such as waste, paper and plastic. This project not only protects the environment by reducing waste sent to landfills, but also brings commercial benefits.

There is a small factory owned by UBQ in Tze’elim, located in southern Israel. In front of the factory are several tons of garbage, including food waste, plastic bags, dirty paper, bottles and containers, and broken toys. UBQ can recycle waste into recycled plastic in a few hours.

Upcycling is not just recycling garbage and unused things, but converting them into new materials and better products and increasing value. The amount of waste generated worldwide is known to be 2 billion tonnes per year, and upcycling can become more important in seeking to solve environmental problems caused by waste.

However, it is not easy to convert a large amount of waste into a possible material, and numerous companies have tried and given up. UBQ claims that it has succeeded in converting raw materials for waste plastic products, including food waste, and eventually develops a technology that can take advantage of commercial benefits. UBQ CEO Jack Bigio says they use their magic to transform all the waste, including chicken bones and banana peels.

Attempts to produce plastic raw materials from a variety of wastes such as food waste and paper, rather than just using sorted plastic waste, will help reduce household waste sent to landfills. Making raw materials for daily necessities from waste can not only protect the global environment, but also realize a sustainable economy. It also explains that if one ton of UBQ plastic pellets is manufactured, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by 15 tons compared to one ton of polypropylene in the same amount.

Of course, there are skepticism about UBQ technology, but it is said that looking at UBQ technology actually changes the mind. Antonis Mavropoulos, chairman of the International Solid Waste Association, says maintaining a more sustainable future requires new technologies as well as new business models.

In the past, there have been some cases of making plastic from food waste. However, UBQ did not disclose its technology. According to an expert who consulted at UBQ, it explained that wastes such as plastics and food waste are dissolved to form a homogeneous material reinforced with organic fibers.

In fact, UBQ first removes large garbage such as shoes and coffee machines from the garbage pile, removes metal such as iron from the automated facility, and then crushes the remaining garbage, and then removes garbage such as glass and rocks. These sorting operations are tailored to customer needs, such as the strength and flexibility of raw fish and the purpose of processing. If it is used for composite bricks, there is no problem in sorting, but when injection molding using a mold, glass and metal must be removed so as not to damage the mold.

According to UBQ, the metal or glass removed during the sorting process is also sent to recycling companies, and it is also efficient in terms of the environment because water is not used during processing. Several tons of sorted and pulverized waste are placed in a huge reactor, heated to 400 degrees, and then subjected to chemical and physical treatment developed by UBQ. In this way, the waste becomes an ash-like powder, which is then molded into plastic pellets. Plastic pellets can be processed into a variety of products and can be colored.

Yehuda Pearl, an Israeli entrepreneur who has invested heavily in UBQ, has opened a pilot facility since 2013 and has an environment where engineers will test technology development and profitability for several years.

There is skepticism, but it is said that the Israeli company (Plasgad) has already produced products using UBQ fillets from August. In addition, as many companies are in consultation with UBQ, Yehuda Pearl expects this company to grow in the future. As China banned the import of waste plastics at the end of 2017 and had a major impact on global waste disposal and recycling, demand for waste utilization businesses is also increasing.

According to UBQ, plastic raw materials made from waste can be recycled more than 6 times and are superior to ordinary plastics, which can only be recycled once or twice. The research team is already conducting tests on properties such as plastic raw materials, new application methods, and durability. The UBQ-owned plant can produce 1 ton of plastic raw materials per hour and has an annual production capacity of 5,000 to 7,000 tons. The global plastic injection molding industry has a market size of $325 billion. Already, UBQ is promoting the construction of a new plant that will achieve an annual output of 100,000 tons. Related information can be found here .