Chemical recycling company Itero Technologies has come out on top in the TechRound 100.
The TechRound 100 competition is organised by TechRound, a news platform for the latest UK start-up and technology news.
This year, over 3000 applications were received, with the judges ‘blown away by the quality of entries including startups that operate in multiple countries and have raised vast amounts through funding rounds’.
Itero Technologies converts non-recyclable plastic waste into chemical products used to produce new plastics, keeping plastic in the circular economy, diverting end-of-life plastics from landfill and incineration, and reducing reliance on and the consumption of crude oil.
The production of plastics is projected to triple by 2060 but existing recycling methods are limited in the types of plastics they can process and the quality of recycled products.
As Simon Hansford, CEO of Itero, said: “Across industries, we see a significant technology gap to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic; our technology comes in at the recycle phase to solve for plastics that would otherwise be destined for landfill or incineration and makes a linear lifecycle circular.”
In addition to operating an R&D Facility located near Heathrow, UK, Itero are currently developing their first at-scale demonstration plant at the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in the Netherlands. The company recently raised €6m in funding, with €5m from Infinity Recycling’s Circular Plastics Fund (CPF), to support the design and construction of the new demonstration plant, increase their R&D activities in the UK, and ready themselves for their next funding round. The plant will process 27,000 tonnes of residual plastic waste annually, equivalent to the total amount of plastic packaging waste generated by the population of Amsterdam municipality per year.
According to the company, as much as 85% of plastic waste still ends up in landfill and incineration. “There is an urgent demand for solutions to plastic waste,” said Hansford.”Being named in the No.1 position shows that this issue is bigger than any one company and demonstrates the deeply felt desire for an end to plastic waste.”
Previous winners of TechRound 100 include Greg Smyth and Jimmy Williams, who founded Urban Jungle Insurance, a fully digital insurance company, and Jamie Crummie who founded TooGoodtoGo, an app that helps restaurants to eliminate food waste.