The plastic industry, long maligned for its environmental impact, is adopting sustainable measures. A wave of new plastic companies are leveraging advanced technologies to address some of the industry’s most pressing challenges. From the development of low-carbon bioplastics, which promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to the application of nanotechnology for enhancing plastic properties, these firms are enabling green transition. Others are making strides in biocompatible polymers, ensuring safety and sustainability in medical applications, while some focus on improving the recycled plastic value chain by introducing novel tracking systems to improve transparency and efficiency.
Continue reading to gain data-driven insights on:
Key Takeaways
Drawing insights from the Big Data & AI-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform that provides data on over 4.7+ million emerging companies globally, we explore the evolving landscape of the plastic industry. This sector is marked by key trends and a substantial workforce, shaping its future. Here are some key insights at a glance:
- Latest Plastic Trends: Some of the major trends impacting the plastic industry are bioplastics, advanced plastic recycling technologies, nanotechnology-based plastic property enhancement, green chemistry, and additive manufacturing.
- Plastic Industry Statistics: The global plastic industry encompasses 166K+ organizations and has a massive 9.3M workforce. It is experiencing a dip of 2% in annual growth rate but has seen the emergence of 9.8K+ new plastic companies in the past five years.
- 10 New Plastic Industry Companies to Watch:
- PlasticsLoop – Food-grade Recycled Plastic
- PHAsT – Biodegradable + Biocompatible Polymer
- ImproMat – Nanotech-based Plastic Property Enhancement
- Circular.co – Recycled Plastic Value Chain Tracking
- SUSPOL – Polymerization & Depolymerization Catalyst
- Kumbha Energy – Plastic Waste to Clean Energy
- Biopolymers Trade – Renewable Resource-based Bioplastic
- PlantSea – Seaweed-based Low Carbon Bioplastic
- Plustechfy – Plastic Waste-based 3D Printing Filament
- Sorted – AI-powered Plastic Waste Sorting
Discover 10 out of 9.8K+ Emerging Plastic Companies
In this section, we spotlight 10 new plastic industry companies focusing on sustainable solutions and material science. These firms develop renewable resource-based bioplastics, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. They also innovate in biodegradable polymers, ensuring products decompose effectively post-use. They convert plastic waste into clean energy, contributing to a circular economy. Moreover, they utilize advanced polymerization catalysts to speed up plastic manufacturing processes and reduce energy consumption. Read on to explore more such innovative solutions!
Note on Signal Strength
One of the unique metrics we feature for each company is Signal Strength, a proprietary data point generated by our Discovery Platform. It gauges the extent to which a company’s influence has permeated the global ecosystem of startups, scaleups, and emerging companies. This proprietary metric serves as a valuable guidepost for understanding a company’s standing in the broader market landscape.
1. PlasticsLoop
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Singapore
- Signal Strength: Medium
- What they do: PlasticsLoop makes NEWPlastic, a food-grade recycled plastic material that enables circular plastic packaging. The company uses mechanical recycling technologies to convert PET plastic recyclate into high-quality, sustainable food-grade materials. These materials form the basis for manufacturing bottles and preforms, addressing packaging needs across various industries. Focused on advancing circular economy models, PlasticsLoop benefits packaging producers and consumer goods companies, delivering eco-friendly solutions that significantly reduce virgin resource use and contribute to waste minimization.
2. PHAsT
- Founding Year: 2023
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: UK
- Signal Strength: Weak
- What they do: PHAsT creates biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) with medical-grade purity for diverse in vivo applications. The company’s proprietary technology allows for the production of materials with adjustable mechanical and degradation properties, suitable for a range of uses from elastic to stiff, and from short-term to long-term. Originating from renewable sources via bacterial fermentation, PHAsT biopolymers ensure sustainability, offering a set of disposal options — significantly lowering carbon emissions compared to traditional plastics. The company thus provides biodegradable and biocompatible polymers to the healthcare and biomedical sectors.
3. ImproMat
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Switzerland
- Signal Strength: Weak
- What they do: ImproMat enhances plastic materials with nanotechnology. The company develops custom compounds and masterbatches by integrating multifunctional additives like antiviral, antibacterial agents, and invisible markers into plastics. These innovations cater to the plastic industry, offering solutions like antiviral and antibacterial protection, making products more hygienic by preventing contaminations. Its offering extends to graphene application in polymers, enhancing durability and performance. Additionally, ImproMat focuses on eco-friendly alternatives, incorporating bio-based additives and recycling options into its products. The company thus benefits manufacturers seeking to enhance product safety, performance, and sustainability.
4. Circular.co
- Founding Year: 2021
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: USA
- Signal Strength: Strong
- What they do: Circular.co builds a platform that simplifies the recycled plastic value chain, enhancing efficiency for buyers, sellers, and shippers. This platform facilitates the buying, selling, and shipping of recycled plastics at scale, offering tools for risk management and deal simplification. It enables short lead times in sourcing, testing, and development, matching proposals with specific technical data, and ensuring secure online transactions. Circular.co also manages risk, supports blends and custom compounding, ensures quality supply, and integrates QA testing with technical data analysis. Beneficiaries include stakeholders in the plastic recycling industry seeking streamlined operations and enterprises dealing with post-consumer recycled materials.
5. SUSPOL
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Spain
- Signal Strength: Strong
- What they do: SUSPOL uses lactide, biomass, and limonene for bio-based plastics, incorporating polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) for biodegradability. Its technology includes polymerization and depolymerization cycles using its proprietary catalyst for material recycling, maintaining properties equivalent to virgin plastics. The company offers low molecular weight bioplastics, such as polylactic acid (PLA) and other PHAs, for use as additives to other high molecular weight bioplastics used as a matrix. SUSPOL thus benefits food packaging with biobased films mimicking polyethylene terephthalate (PET), cosmetics, and fashion packaging, alongside PLA for 3D printing. This chemical recycling approach, low in energy consumption, is useful to industries aiming for carbon neutrality and zero waste, promoting sustainable material cycles.
6. Kumbha Energy
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: USA
- Signal Strength: Medium
- What they do: Kumbha Energy offers Kumbha Plant, a plastic upcycling solution that converts plastic waste into synthetic oils, biofuels, or electrical energy. Employing methods like pyrolysis and the company’s proprietary Kumbha Zero technology, it ensures zero emissions in the process. The Kumbha Network, underpinned by the Kumbha 3.0 Platform, leverages blockchain for traceability and efficiency for plastic waste upcycling, promoting a global circular economy.
7. Biopolymers Trade
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: Slovakia
- Signal Strength: Weak
- What they do: Biopolymers trade makes NonOilen, a sustainable alternative for the plastic industry. This biodegradable, petroleum-free product is made using polymers that come from renewable resources such as biomass. Moroever, it fits into existing production technologies. NonOilen is fully compostable and lacks microplastics in decomposition and recyclability — offering applications in packaging, personal care, and more. It benefits industries aiming for sustainability without compromising product quality.
8. PlantSea
- Founding Year: 2020
- Employee Range: 11-50
- Location: UK
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: PlantSea specializes in bioplastic development, enabling the reduction of petroleum-based plastic impacts. The company provides biodegradable alternatives, primarily utilizing seaweed. Its low-carbon and biodegradable products are water-soluble and water-resistant. PlantSea’s technology uses natural resources, supporting seaweed aquaculture for sustainable raw material growth and carbon sequestration. The company’s bioplastics thus contribute to a circular economy, integrating waste organic materials and promoting soil enrichment.
9. Plustechfy
- Founding Year: 2023
- Location: Azerbaijan
- Signal Strength: Weak
- What they do: Plustechfy makes the Filament Machine, a plastic extruder that melts specific sizes of plastics using temperature and pressure, shaping products for various molds. It also creates recycled filaments for 3D Printers, converting PP (polypropylene) plastic waste into usable filament by incorporating chemical additives to match the properties of virgin materials. This supports the plastic industry by providing sustainable options for 3D printing and manufacturing, promoting environmental responsibility and material reuse. The beneficiaries include businesses seeking eco-friendly filament solutions.
10. Sorted
- Founding Year: 2022
- Employee Range: 2-10
- Location: UK
- Signal Strength: Very Strong
- What they do: Sorted develops AI-powered solutions for sorting recyclable materials, to address the global issue of plastic waste. Its technology distinguishes recyclable plastics with precision and categorizes them by resin type and use. This minimizes the volume of recyclables ending up in landfills and incinerators. Beneficiaries include waste management companies seeking to enhance recycling efficiency and sustainability.
Quick Tip to Find New Plastic Companies
Utilizing a SaaS platform like the Discovery Platform for identifying new plastic companies provides significant benefits compared to traditional scouting methods:
- Streamlined Efficiency: The Discovery Platform offers advanced tools that streamline the scouting process. It replaces your hours of conventional desk research, saving time and resources in identifying plastic industry innovations.
- Access to Real-time Insights: Gain a competitive edge with up-to-date information on the latest trends in the plastic industry. The platform keeps you informed with near real-time updates on emerging plastic industry companies and news, enabling you to make swift and informed decisions.
- Precise Scouting: Customize your search to focus on specific niches within the plastic sector, such as bioplastics, plastic property enhancement solutions, or advanced plastic recycling technologies. The platform’s diverse filtering options allow you to target your scouting efforts precisely, ensuring that you find the most relevant and groundbreaking companies in the field.
Ready to Explore All Plastic Companies?
We’ve explored the dynamic landscape of the plastic industry, examining the latest trends and spotlighting exceptional companies driving innovation. To dive deeper, download our free Plastic Recycling Report or schedule a demo of the Discovery Platform for a customized exploration of these groundbreaking developments.
