Narrator: Imagine a world where plastics
solve problems rather than create them.
They're made out of garbage, they're compostable,
they're endlessly recyclable.
Scientists and entrepreneurs are in a race
to solve humanity's addiction to petroleum-based polymers
that are clogging landfills and the ocean.
And investors are taking note.
More than $30 trillion are currently
held in sustainable investments.
So whoever gets there first could be solving
one of humanity's biggest issues.
There's a startup that claims it can turn
all kinds of trash into treasure,
in the form of these plastic-like pellets.
- Everything from foodstuffs, like chicken bones,
banana peels, leftovers, salad, your soup,
the mixed plastic, the cardboard, and the paper.
Narrator: UBQ Materials has raised $30 million
from private investors to do just that.
Humans create at least 3.5 million tons
of solid waste each day.
That's roughly the weight of 1.5 million cars.
At this dump south of Jerusalem,
UBQ sorts and dries the garbage, shreds it,
and then grinds it into this confetti-like material.
That gets melted into a spaghetti
and then chopped into pellets.
UBQ sends those off to conventional plastic manufacturers
who can mix them with regular plastic pellets.
- It sounds like magic, it looks like magic,
but it's actually quite sophisticated technology.
Narrator: UBQ doesn't allow filming
behind the doors where the patented magic happens.
We asked the company CEO if he would ever
share his secret with the world.
- Do you ask Coca-Cola if they will release
their formula so everybody can drink Coca-Cola?
I mean, why do you protect your technology?
Why does that patent exist? Like, you know?
Because you're a business, and if you want to create
a business out of what you're doing,
you need to protect your know-how.
Narrator: It's not unusual
for patented technology to be kept secret,
but this venture isn't without skeptics.
Duane Priddy, CEO of the Plastic Expert Group,
called UBQ's claims "too good to be true,"
likening it to alchemy in a 2018 Associated Press article.
When reached by phone in late 2019,
a spokesperson said Priddy had been instructed
not to speak with Business Insider,
but another spokesperson told us he remained skeptical.
UBQ has won over other prominent scientists, though,
including Oded Shoseyov,
a Hebrew University biochemist who serves on the board.
- So I was skeptical,
but after thorough studying and experiments
conducted by a former student of mine
that actually joined the company at a certain point of time,
we realized that indeed, there is something unique
and novel in this technology.
Narrator: UBQ hopes these recycling bins,
presented with much fanfare last summer in Virginia,
are just a first step into the US market.
- We hope that this is going to be a ubiquitous
solution to the very, very difficult problem
of waste management in the world.
- I'm super excited that they've picked Virginia
to start their process and start talking,
and bringing their technology and innovation here.
Narrator: From 2016 to 2018,
sustainable, responsible, and impact investing
grew by more than 38%,
and the appetite seems to be growing.
- I think we're seeing rising
regulatory pressures globally on bans
around plastics and single-use plastics.
But I also think we're continuing to see
those social pressures.
You're seeing more and more of it on social media.
It's really opened up this issue to the masses.
Narrator: An investment director at Schroders,
which manages hundreds of billions of dollars
in accounts all over the world,
Hughes helps her clients choose
sustainable initiatives to invest in.
- I think part of your investment due diligence
is always to see that evidence physically.
And it's also making sure that, yes,
looking at their supply chain,
tracking to all their suppliers.
Narrator: In addition to investing in this space,
companies are also feeling the pressure
to use plastic alternatives in their packaging.
These pellets being pushed through an extruder
are made of a polyester material that's made from corn,
but mainly petroleum-based.
But they're compostable.
- When I came on about six years ago
to now, we've more than quadrupled in size.
Narrator: EcoSafe is a Vancouver-based company
that is one of the manufacturers
of compostable film products intended
to replace conventional plastics.
- It's a lot harder to make a bag that's going to get you
the same performance characteristics of regular plastic,
but is also going to perform at the compost
and break down properly and not contaminate soil
and not contaminate that process.
Narrator: Even though the market is growing,
there are still some major challenges.
It all comes back to the product's end of life.
For a compostable cup to break down quickly,
it needs moisture levels and temperatures to be just right,
as they are in a composting facility.
- Everything's biodegradable.
I mean, we're biodegradable, a cup is biodegradable,
I mean, radioactive waste is biodegradable.
It just takes 5,000 years to biodegrade.
Narrator: Frank Franciosi at the US Composting Council
explains how the market has gone mainstream
over the last decade.
- You're seeing more and more stockholders
going to companies and saying, "You need to be green,
you need to be more sustainable,"
and they're looking at their production processes,
instead of cradle-to-grave, they're looking to develop
products that are cradle-to-cradle,
that are part of the circular economy.
Narrator: In some ways, compostable plastics
face many of the same challenges
as conventional recyclable plastics,
a whole lot of responsibility for the end consumer.
Many of the plastics we toss into the recycling bin,
like straws and shopping bags, are not recyclable at all.
Others never get a second life
because the chemicals added to make them useful,
like fillers or solvents, make them impossible to recycle.
The most recyclable plastic, polyethylene terephthalate,
usually doesn't get properly sorted.
And even the 25% of it that does
only goes through the process once or twice
before ending up in incinerators,
landfills, or in the ocean.
The ultimate goal, then, would be material
that can be recycled over and over and over again.
Berkeley scientists stumbled upon what they say
is a formula for endlessly recyclable plastics.
- In chemistry labs, you wash your glassware
with acid washes or base washes.
And what we noticed when we cleaned up glassware
contaminated with PDK resins
is that an acid bath would actually transform
the polymer back into its original monomer,
and this was very unexpected to us.
Narrator: In May 2019, they announced a new family
of mainly petroleum-based polymers that can be broken down
into molecular parts and then reassembled
into different shapes, textures, and colors
again and again and again,
without any loss of performance or quality.
They call it PDK.
The next challenge is to commercialize it
and make it scalable.
PDKs are one-third plant-based,
but they're hoping to get to 95%.
They plan to develop PDK plastics
with a wide range of uses for things
like textiles, 3D printing, and foams.
If PDKs were to systematically replace everyday plastics,
that would mean when you place a plastic cup
in the recycling bin,
it would be much more likely to have a new life,
but you would still have to take that extra step to recycle.
Meanwhile, every day,
nearly 1 million plastic beverage bottles
are sold each minute around the world.
Scientists estimate that right now,
there are at least 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris,
weighing 270,000 tons, floating in the oceans.
By 2050, there will be so much plastic,
it will outweigh the fish.
And for now, the race to find the perfect plastic continues.