Page 46 - Plastics News November 2022

TECHNOLOGY

reasons why used plastic is piling up tens of millions of unique enzymes continues to become more crucial
in our oceans, landfills and incinera- to identify the most effective way to to support that growth, it's clear that
tors. PEI has innovated a low-energy, recycle waste materials into reusable the work Protein Evolution is do-
cost-competitive process for upcy- chemicals. This approach will help to ing will help lay the foundation for
cling finished plastics that's poised decarbonize the chemicals industry the future of synthetic biology," said
to meet both industry concerns and will carry significant impact in Jonathan Rothberg, co-founder and
and deliver massive environmen- the emerging bioeconomy as compa- Chairman of Protein Evolution. "At
tal benefits. We're working hard to nies, communities and governments 4Catalyzer, we've created a number
usher in a new era of plastics—one are required to meet global sus- of world 'firsts' in the health technol-
that's truly sustainable and circular." tainability goals in the years ahead. ogy industry, all of which aim to help

“Corporations, and the actions they “Nature has already produced a heal the people we love. I am incred-
take today, play a significant role in bacteria that can break down plas- ibly proud of the work the team at
charting the course of the climate tic for emission-free recycling, but Protein Evolution has done to lever-
future,” says Sophie Bakalar, a part- it’s extremely slow. If we had a age 4Catalyzer's strengths in AI and
ner at Collaborative Fund and PEI few million years to wait for evolu- synthetic biology to help heal the
Board Member. “The technology tion to run its course, we'd have planet we all love and depend on."
that Protein Evolution has developed something much more efficient," The Protein Evolution team works in
allows the world’s largest consumer said Scott Stankey, PEI Co-Found- tandem with pre-eminent research-
brands to meet sustainability com- er and Chief Technology Officer. ers who are pushing the boundaries
mitments at scale, without com- "Our technology condenses a million- of protein engineering and materi-
promising on cost or quality of ma- year evolutionary process into a single als innovation. The team expects to
terials. Our investment in PEI is an day—helping us create an affordable, launch its first commercial partner-
incredible opportunity to support scalable and effective solution to rev- ship by the end of 2022, addressing
an innovator who will soon become olutionize the plastic waste industry." the needs of global consumer brands
a leader in the global bioeconomy.” seeking to recycle and transform
"As the bioeconomy continues to
Protein Evolution’s technology it- grow, and scaling biomanufacturing textiles and mixed-plastic waste.
eratively tests, evaluates and maps

Canadian Project Shows Digital Watermarks Aid Sortation of Flexible Packaging

pilot project in Canada demon- of Canadian conditions,” according first in North America. Using Digi-
A strated that “covert digital wa- to Digimarc. “Remarkably, the re- marc Recycle technology, the covert
termarks” (almost imperceptible to sults show consistent behavior no digital watermarks can be read by a
the naked eye) can dramatically im- matter the type of material used, suitably programmed optical scanner
prove sortation of films and flexible the form factor or the type of com- that is interfaced with a cloud-based
packaging, which cannot be handled mingled waste.” Starting next year, repository of product attributes such
effectively by conventional opti- CPT aims to implement the technol- s brand, SKU, product variant, pack-
cal sortation technology. That’s the ogy in Canadian separation facilities. aging composition, food/nonfood
report from Digimarc Corp., Bea- Digimarc Recycle technology involv- use, etc. The same information can
verton, Ore., which worked with ing covert digital watermarks either be used to provide product-specific
Canada’s Circular Plastics Taskforce printed on packaging or molded into and location-based disposal instruc-
(CPT), participating converters and the surface of rigid plastics has been tions from the brand owner directly
Pellenc ST, a French producer of in- used in large-scale sorting assess- to consumers. Scannable data in the
telligent optical sorting equipment ments over the past year, most nota- digital watermarks also can pro-
and connected services (U.S. of- bly as part of the HolyGrail 2.0 cross- vide a comprehensive view of the
fice in N.Y.C.). Accuracy of detec- industry initiative in Europe driven post-purchase product journey for
tion and sorting was 99% for films by AIM—European Brands Associa- Producer Responsibility initiatives.
and flexibles constituting a mixed- tion and the Alliance to End Plastic
waste sample that is “characteristic Waste. The Canadian project was the

46 PLASTICS NEWS November 2022