A new era for plastic recycling has begun in Switzerland as circular materials company DePoly inaugurates its first industrial Showcase Plant in Monthey.

 

Thus, marking a major step toward large-scale recycling of PET plastics and polyester textiles into virgin-quality raw materials.

 

The facility is the first depolymerization plant of its kind and scale in Switzerland. It represents a critical milestone in DePoly’s transition from laboratory innovation to industrial deployment — demonstrating that plastic waste can be transformed into a continuous resource rather than discarded.

 

With more than 450 million tons of plastic waste generated worldwide every year and less than 10% effectively reused, DePoly is targeting one of the biggest challenges facing the global materials industry. The company’s vision is to replace the traditional “take, make, dispose” model with a circular system where valuable materials remain in circulation.

 

"Waste is no longer a problem to manage, but a resource that can be continuously reused,” is the principle driving DePoly’s industrial mission.

 

Unlike conventional recycling methods, which often reduce material quality over repeated cycles, DePoly’s technology breaks PET down into its original chemical building blocks. This allows the company to recreate virgin-quality raw materials with no loss of performance, suitable for the full range of PET applications.

 

Founded in 2020 as an EPFL spin-off by Samantha Anderson, Chris Ireland and Bardiya Valizadeh, DePoly was created with a clear ambition: to make plastics truly circular.

 

Headquartered in Sion, Switzerland, and supported by a team of around 30 employees, the company selected Monthey’s Industrial Park (CIMO) as the location for its first industrial unit. The site provides access to established chemical expertise, advanced infrastructure and a strong industrial ecosystem — enabling DePoly to accelerate its path toward commercialization.

 

The Showcase Plant represents a significant investment, creating 12 direct jobs and more than 30 indirect jobs. With a nominal capacity of around 500 tons of feedstock input per year, the facility will serve as a critical platform to optimize operations, validate products with industrial customers and collect the data needed for future commercial-scale plants.

 

DePoly’s next major target is a commercial facility with a capacity of 50,000 tons per year.

 

“Innovation is often celebrated in the lab, but impact happens when the technology enters the industrial world. This Showcase Plant represents that transition for DePoly, it is the point where vision becomes execution and it represents more than just steel, pipes and equipment. 

 

"It represents six years of asking if the circular economy is possible, and proving that it is. It's the first visible step toward a future where waste is no longer seen as a problem to manage, but as a resource that can be continuously reused, and DePoly will lead that future.” says Samantha Anderson, CEO and co-founder of DePoly.

 

At the heart of DePoly’s technology is light-activated chemical depolymerization, a process capable of breaking down PET materials in under 60 minutes without requiring high temperatures or additional pressure.

 

The process recovers PET’s original monomers — purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and monoethylene glycol (MEG) — which can be directly reintroduced into existing industrial production chains to create new materials with the same quality as virgin resources.

 

The technology is designed to tackle waste streams that remain difficult for traditional recycling systems, including food packaging, polyester textiles, complex films, coloured plastics and contaminated materials.

 

Recovered materials can be used across multiple industries, including packaging, textiles, automotive and electronics.

 

Beyond its environmental benefits, DePoly’s technology addresses growing industrial challenges around resource security and supply chain resilience.

 

By converting locally available waste into high-quality raw materials, the company aims to reduce dependence on fossil-based resources, strengthen access to critical materials and support industries working to reduce their carbon footprint.

 

The Showcase Plant inauguration represents a major achievement not only for DePoly but also for Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem. It demonstrates that advanced recycling technologies can move beyond research and development into real industrial applications.