Ultimate Plastic Claw Back

The post “Four Rs in Plastics Solution” on April 17^th described the American Chemistry Councils’ recommendation to ‘reduce, recycle and recover’ plastic as solutions to fix the plastic contamination problem in our land and waterways. Once ‘cracked’ and chemically chained together, polymers that make up plastic do not give up their chemical properties easily.  Some plastics can last for hundreds of years.  While highly functional, plastics are anything but environmentally benign.

Each plastic type has its own typical mode of degradation.  When enough heat is applied to it polyethylene turns into a mixture of molecules that resemble gasoline.  Other plastic polymers only break up at the end of their long chains of molecules and they ‘upzip’ into various monomers, most of which are toxic.  To make matters worse toxic additives and fillers that help make plastic useful can leach out easily, contaminating the food chain and interrupting plant growth and animals reproduction. 

The building volume of plastic in landfills, fields, forests, and waterways is becoming a monumental problem.  Finding substitutes such as glass containers or reusing and recycling plastic are parts of the solution.  However, others see recovery of wayward plastics as critical to reducing contamination of the environment, especially the food chain.

High Seas Boom

One of the most high profile plastics pollution sites is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  This vortex or gyre of marine debris was first sighted in the mid 1980s by sailors traveling between California and Hawaii.  Its size has been estimates as at least 270,000 square miles or as much as 15 million square miles.  That might seem large, but the patch actually occupies less than 1% of the Pacific Ocean.  About 80% of the marine debris is plastic, suggesting that if not manually recovered from the ocean it will simply grow in size.  Any degradation will be into ‘microplastic’ that is unhealthy for marine life.      

It stands to reason that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch would be the target of developers with ideas for plastics recovery in waterways. A Dutch aerospace engineering student, Boyan Slat, has designed a solar powered boom with the intention of scooping up the garbage patch.   Despite youth and inexperience Slat has been successful in getting both scientific and financial support for his idea, including a leading authority on marine pollution, Ocean Clean Up. 

Slat’s first boom will be deployed mid-2018 as a test of functionality in the Pacific Ocean.  A prototype was already testing in the North Sea in 2016.  An untethered circular boom sits on top the water, acting like a beachhead where plastic debris can gather.  The debris is expected to migrate toward the center of the circle.  Periodically, boats will move along side and college the debris.  The booms are expected to move around but be kept near where deployed by deep-water tides.  The same tides are moving the plastic, so the boom is expected to remain deployed exactly where plastic debris needs to be recovered.

After the 2018 test, Slat and his supporters at the Ocean Clean Up plan to deploy a fleet of as many as 50 booms, each about a half mile in size.  Then they will be ready to tackle the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Slat’s group estimates that as much as 97% of the plastic the booms will collect will be large plastic pieces and only 3% will be microplastics.  The group sees potential for recycling to pay for the booms and collection operations. 

A crowdfunding campaign and other donations have been used so far to financing development and testing.  If the 2018 boom deployment yields recyclable plastic, investors might look seriously at additional crowdfunding or private placement opportunities in any commercial venture that arises.

River Run

The ocean boom recovery concept has its detractors.   Ocean experts point to the fact that a good share of the various ocean gyres like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are actually microplastics floating well below the ocean surface where the booms will work.  Others point to the potential ‘bycatch’ when if sea life gets caught up and harmed in the booms.  Yet a third argument, frets over the diversion of capital from other more worthy plastic recovery platforms.  The latter complaint seems more driven by jealousy.

The Ocean Cleanup Foundation has acknowledged the potential for bycatch, making this is one of the issues being tested in the 2018 Pacific deployment.  Slat’s group also realizes it is probably too late to pick up microplastics.  The ocean booms are intended to retrieve larger pieces of plastic before they get worn down and become microplastics.  Reportedly there are as many as four billion plastic microfibers on the sea floor already.   Why allow this figure to become larger?    

This line of reasoning seems to be in line with the objectives of some of Slat’s detractors, the Waterkeeper Alliance, which seeks to prevent plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place, among other clean water initiatives.  The Alliance cites a study by the American Chemical Society, which found that as much as 88% of the plastic pollution in the oceans comes from just ten rivers:  the Yangtze, Yellow, Hai He, Pearl, Amur, Mekong, Indus, Ganges, Niger, and Nile. 

The Waterkeeper Alliance has local groups on the ground working on these and other rivers.  Two important initiatives are bans on plastic shopping bags and single-use plastics.  The Alliance also works on plastic recovery projects where recycling is an important part of financing.

The engineered textiles company Return Textiles with its BIONIC Yarn has teamed up with Waterkeeper Alliance for a plastic recovery operation in Costa Rica.  Return Textiles is focused on high-performance textiles and polymers and uses marine and coastal plastic debris for feedstock. 

The company has developed four products sold under the BIONIC brand.  HLX is a patented performance yarn that has a helical cover over recycled PET.  The helix can be made from cotton, wool, hemp or linen.  Recycled PET is also used in the company’s DPX yarn, which twists both natural and synthetic fibers.  The company’s FLX yarn is a continuous filament formed by heating and spinning together recycled PET.  The company also produces recycle PET and HDPE type plastics in pellet form for manufacturers, who want a more environmentally sound material than virgin plastics.  The company reportedly churned through 1.7 million plastic bottles to turn its first one-million sales year  -  $1.3 million sales in 2011.

Return Textiles is a young company based in New York.  It is already attracted celebrity endorsements and partnerships, including Pharrell Williams.  Williams has partnered with BIONIC on a clothing line called Raw for the Oceans using BIONIC textiles.  The collaboration with Williams has opened the door to other big names, such as G-Star Raw, Uniqlo and Moncler.  Adidas has been using BIONIC materials in a shoe line and some apparel. 

A loan from a green tech investor in the early years helped Return Textiles produce enough samples to begin winning customers.   With an expanding customer list, it is likely the company will be back in front of investors with additional capital needs. 

No Short-term Plastics Solutions or Get Rich Quick Schemes

Investors who want to make certain their capital is part of the plastics solution and not the problem, may be frustrated in not finding more public company opportunities.   Those opportunities will likely come along.  In the meantime, it will be in the realms of crowd funding and private placements where investors must travel.  Two examples include On the Wings of Waste, a project developing aviation fuel from recycled plastic waste, and CuanTec’s project to made composable food containers as alternatives to plastic.  Both are seeking financial support through crowdfunding initiatives. 

Neither the author of the Small Cap Strategist web log, Crystal Equity Research nor its affiliates have a beneficial interest in the companies mentioned herein.