The U.S. recycling industry is struggling to keep up with its sustainability ambitions. While plastic consumption continues to rise, less than 30% of plastic bottles in North America are collected for recycling, compared to over 65% in Europe. The problem? High costs, outdated recycling methods, and reliance on petrochemicals have limited the industry’s ability to scale.
“That difference creates a massive disparity in available supply versus potential supply,” says Stwart Peña Feliz, CEO & co-founder of a cleantech startup aiming to redefine how plastics are recycled.
Peña Feliz, a former ExxonMobil engineer, has seen these inefficiencies firsthand. His company, MacroCycle, developed a low-energy, cost-effective alternative to traditional plastic recycling that doesn’t rely on breaking plastics down into their raw monomers and rebuilding them from scratch. Instead, MacroCycle’s patented process retains much of the original plastic structure, requiring 80% less energy than conventional methods.
The innovation comes at a pivotal time. Large corporations and regulators are pushing for more recycled content in packaging and textiles, but most recycling solutions require manufacturers to pay a premium for sustainability, a cost many companies aren’t willing to absorb.
“A lot of our competitors in the industry are reliant on a green premium,” Peña Feliz explains. “Because we have a lower cost structure, we don’t require the green premium, allowing us to be competitive regardless of what regulation passes.”
A Chemistry-Driven Solution
Unlike traditional chemical recycling, which breaks plastics down to their base molecules and rebuilds them, MacroCycle’s approach creates an intermediate compound, called a macrocycle, that allows them to bypasses the petrochemical refining altogether.
“We don’t break the plastics to then rebuild it. We just tie it [molecule] with itself and then break that one bond to recycle plastic.” says Peña Feliz. “That is a significantly more energy-efficient process, where we’re not undoing all the energy that went into making the plastic in the first place.”
This efficiency gives MacroCycle a strategic advantage. Many corporations have set ambitious sustainability goals, but they are unwilling to alter their manufacturing processes or pay extra for recycled materials.
“We are telling our customers that they have to change nothing in their process, they pay no more, and they get to adopt all the circularity benefits,” Peña Feliz explains.
MacroCycle is targeting industries heavily dependent on PET and polyester, including food & beverage, cosmetics, and fast fashion. With consumer pressure mounting for sustainable alternatives, the company believes its process offers a drop-in solution that doesn’t require major overhauls in packaging or textile production.
The Path to Scale and Global Adoption
After closing a $6.5 million seed round, MacroCycle is scaling its operations by 50%. The investment will be used to send more samples to commercial partners and refine its process for large-scale production.
“We’re going to be scaling up our operations by 50% and sending additional products to our customers,” Peña Feliz notes. “The biggest challenge with scaling up is ensuring that the chemistry behaves and reacts the same way as we scale up.”
With a technology that eliminates petrochemical dependency, a cost structure that removes barriers to adoption, and a scalability plan that aligns with industry needs, MacroCycle is poised to lead the next wave of sustainable manufacturing.
Whether regulatory shifts accelerate its adoption or whether corporate demand alone drives its success, it’s clear that MacroCycle’s model is a blueprint for the future of recycling.
