Hilversum, December 2nd 2024 – The Polestar Capital Circular Debt Fund (PCDF) announces its €3 million debt financing of Uppact, a processor of hard-to-recycle plastic and textile waste streams into building and construction materials. Uppact has now secured €5.2 million in equity, subsidies and debt financing for the construction of its first recycling facility in the port area of Delfzijl (the Netherlands).

Currently, only around 30% of all plastic waste streams are being recycled in the Netherlands. Most of the plastic and textile waste is still being incinerated or ends up as landfill, which has severe consequences for the environment. Often waste managers choose these options as there are no alternative methods to treating the “unrecyclable” portion of these plastic waste streams. Recycling therefore would greatly benefit from innovative solutions, specifically for this fraction of waste.

Uppact offers a value-added solution by being able to process the rejected or sorted out materials from mechanical recyclers, that would otherwise be incinerated. Their solution is based on a patented technology, which mixes and melts waste streams by applying pressure on a plastic flow in a rotating cylinder. The resulting friction creates heat, which melts the plastics, after which the molten plastic can directly be fed into an extruder to make new plastic products. In their earlier pilot plant, they have proven to produce good quality products for construction purposes (e.g. boards, beams, poles and sheet materials) from the plastic waste streams with this process. Their products are price-competitive, fully circular, with an excellent environmental footprint. This way Uppact delivers an impactful contribution to closing the loop in plastic and textile value chains.

With its funding, Uppact will construct a demonstration plant in Farmsum, the Netherlands, using one production line, which will be a first of its kind in Europe. The recycling installation will be able to annually process approximately 4,000 tons of plastic and textile waste, resulting in a reduction of approximately 14,000 tons of CO2-equivalents.

Jan Jaap Folmer (CEO, Uppact): “We are very excited to take this important step towards a more sustainable future. With the support from PCDF, equity investors NOM and Groningen Groeifonds and a Just Transition Fund subsidy we now have the financing in place to build our factory. We look forward to be able to contribute to building a circular future.”

Jan-Willem König (CEO, PCDF): “The fact that Uppact is able to process the plastic waste streams that have been sorted out as non-recyclable residual waste by other mechanical recycling parties, makes their technology complementary to existing plastic recycling methods. With this they contribute to increased circularity within the plastic value chain – a goal Uppact as well as we share. Therefore, we are more than happy that our loan helps in making this possible.”

About Uppact

UPPACT | the UnWaste Company provides an innovative solution to the waste management industry in the Netherlands by processing unrecyclable plastic and textile waste with its first demonstration plant with which it saves this waste from landfill and incineration. UPPACT plans to further scale up in the Northern Netherlands and to set up several similar facilities in the Netherlands and Northwest Europe. This approach fits seamlessly with the objective of both Dutch and European policy to promote a circular economy and to recycle and reuse plastic waste as much as possible.

About the Polestar Capital Circular Debt Fund (PCDF)

PCDF is the largest debt fund of Europe dedicated to financing the transition to a circular economy. The fund recently closed its fundraising with €240 million capital. Through PCDF, Polestar Capital invests in innovative circular projects with the potential to create worldwide systemic ecological impact, both by waste reduction and recycling as well as the substitution of fossil fuels. This lowers the use of virgin resources, as well as carbon emissions. Often, these projects have difficulty raising enough funding. Banks usually find such projects too innovative and the projects are generally too capital intensive for venture capitalists to finance the non-subsidised part entirely with equity. By closing this funding gap, PCDF allows circular production companies to prove their technologies and business models on a commercial scale. In doing so, the fund paves the road for other financiers to finance the further scaling of these technologies. Investments by PCDF benefit from support from the European Union under the InvestEU Fund. For more information visit www.pcdf.nl

Michel Walstock (most to the left) and Jan Jaap Folmer (most to the right) together with Plastech’s Peter and Colin Barker while inspecting the Plastech Mixer-Melter to be shipped from Australia to Delfzijl.