Co-Founder in Residence, The Next Generation of Plastics Recycling

Join as a Founder in Residence in Climate

We're on the lookout for entrepreneurial individuals with technical and commercial domain expertise with keen interest in founding, and building a global scale, impact driven, high growth company from ground up.

We are seeking applications from experienced industry, startup and / or new science or engineering based technology development professionals from anywhere in the world to work with us on the next generation of plastics recycling.

You'll work closely with the DSV team and the current Founder in Residence for this area to co-found and spin-out a new company. Once the new venture is incorporated with pre-seed investment from DSV, you and your co-founder(s) will own the majority stake in the business and continue receiving support from the DSV team post-spinout.

The role is full-time, remote initially until venture incorporation and spin-out (circa Q1 2026).

The Opportunity

Given their ubiquity, it wouldn't be an overstatement to say that polymers are some of the most useful materials that exist. They are tough, chemically resistant, and have great barrier properties. This trifecta of properties make them ideal packaging materials. These properties make polymers incredibly durable, and resistant to degradation.

This durability poses a unique problem after we have finished using plastics - the end of life. We produce ~400 million tons of plastics every year, and almost none of these plastics will degrade.

Currently, 80% of chemicals generated from crude oil are used in the production of plastics. As we mentioned, ~90% of these materials are "once through" and are not used in their end of life. A recent report predicts that 70% of new oil demand growth will be the result of demand in chemicals, not fuels.

Currently, plastics are responsible for 3.3% of annual CO2 emissions. However, their use and production is increasing rapidly. We produce 200 times more plastic now than we did in 1950, and we're projected to double again in the next 25 years. By 2050, plastics could be responsible to 7 gigatons of CO2 every year.

So if we want to avoid drilling for more oil and gas and we want to stop plastic waste from polluting the world, the solution appears simple : make new plastic from old plastic. However, today's dominant recycling method - mechanical recycling - downgrades plastic properties, leading eventually to downcycling, and is only suitable for well sorted feeds. This leaves chemical recycling to pick up the pieces.

The potential to generate feedstocks from waste polymers is well understood and established, but the majority of companies are currently generating fuels and feedstocks, not chemicals. To leverage the potential of waste plastic as a valuable resource, we have to make something valuable from it.

Hence, we see the value in this opportunity lying in the capability to generate high-value chemical products from plastic waste, working toward meeting the growing chemical demands of the world.

Specifically, we aim to achieve this by developing a new kind of chemical recycling. The current generation of chemical recycling reactors are constrained inherently by their design :

• Long residence times promote the formation high molecular weight products, reducing valuable chemical feedstocks like olefins and promoting the formation of toxics like polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
• Major products are not inherently useful as chemical feedstocks. Approximately 60% are useful as fuels, and 30% have to be processed again to produce something chemically useful.

Our Approach

We are developing the first commercial plastic cracker that will directly convert plastic waste to mixed olefin gas. Our approach targets converting waste polyolefins into over three times as many (~70%, polypop vs ~15%, chemical recycling + steam cracking) high value chemicals per ton of plastic processed for half of the energy.

Currently waste plastic is trash, but with the right technology? It is a treasure. In a world where waste plastic is a valuable resource we flip the paradigm on its head.