create
100% recycling of plastics
together

The world is full of unutilized waste, much of which is plastic. We collect it for recycling, but most of it ends up in the incinerator. The plastic that is actually reused often gets a lower-value application, such as being downcycled into items like roadside posts or fleece clothing. True recycling of plastic into the same application is almost non-existent. This needs to change.

Biodegradable plastic

Plastic that ends up in the environment breaks down into microplastics that continue to circulate for hundreds of years. It would be wonderful if there were plastics used that degrade in just a few years or less, which are strong enough for most applications, but without microplastics. Well, such biodegradable plastics do exist, like polylactic acid (PLA). In Nature, it is converted back into lactic acid, a natural substance that serves as food for bacteria. With a special version of the TORWASH® Process, you can accelerate the conversion of collected PLA into the same lactic acid, the original building block of PLA, which you can use to make new PLA. This is true recycling because you are creating exactly the same material that you started with. We call it Recycling-by-TORWASH®.

Thanks to research by TNO, we know that PLA, PHA, and other biodegradable plastics behave the same way. Fossil-based plastics are chemically inert in the TORWASH® process. Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) melt and form round particles that float, while all other inert plastics sink, like PET or PA. Due to the special effect of TORWASH® on PLA and PHA, it can be separated out from other plastics in a mixed waste stream. Now is the time to scale up from the lab and apply it to real waste streams, which is a project we are setting up at TORWASH BV.

Designed-for-TORWASH

The unique solubility of PLA and the lack of solubility of other plastics can also be intentionally used to design packaging or objects that can be treated with the TORWASH® process. By cleverly combining materials and using PLA as a frame, you can completely disassemble the entire object at once in a TORWASH® reactor. The PE/PP particles are skimmed off. The lactic acid solution is rinsed out, and loose parts remain at the bottom of the reactor. How such an object is put together is a challenge for designers. We call it Designed-for-TORWASH®. To demonstrate this concept, Studio LaVina has made a working lamp. Only the batteries were removed before the entire lamp was put into the TORWASH® reactor. All PLA depolymerized and dissolved. What remained were parts that are completely reusable, such as screws, cellulose fibers, copper wires, and even the LEDs, which still worked fine by the way.

The future

In the fight against microplastics and plastic pollution, you need to address the problem at the source: replacing as many fossil, non-biodegradable plastics as possible with biodegradable plastics that can be recycled. The development of Recycling-by-TORWASH® and Designed-for-TORWASH® is the first step towards these types of circular plastics that are safe for the environment. It is possible, but you need to think differently. We say: don't look for methods to recycle existing fossil plastics, but replace them with new circular, biodegradable plastics starting with PLA and PHA. These and other, new-to-develop plastics can have the same properties as fossil, non-biodegradable plastics, except that they do not break down into microplastics in the environment but into loose, decomposable molecules. We would like to work with anyone who shares this goal. TORWASH BV can provide the technology to bring these types of plastics back to their original building blocks.