Novoloop demonstration plant in India marks a breakthrough in plastic recycling
Plastics have defined the modern age—appearing in everything from aerospace components to snack packaging. Yet their very qualities of strength, durability, and affordability have made plastic waste one of humanity’s greatest environmental challenges. Traditional recycling downgrades plastics into lower-quality products, and only nine percent of global production is currently recycled. The rest—over 50 million tonnes annually—often leaks into the environment, threatening ecosystems, wildlife, and human health.
Rolex Awards Laureate Miranda Wang has dedicated more than a decade to solving this crisis. Together with co-founder Jeanny Yao, she established Novoloop, a company pioneering chemical recycling technology that converts hard-to-recycle polyethylene waste—like plastic bags, films, and packaging—into high-performance thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Unlike traditional processes, Novoloop’s technology reduces carbon emissions by 91% compared to virgin plastic production, while delivering materials on par with fossil fuel–based alternatives.
Now, with support from the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative, Wang and Yao have realized a major milestone: the launch of Novoloop’s first demonstration plant in Surat, India. Built in partnership with specialty chemicals company Aether Industries, the facility successfully operated for 100 continuous hours, proving that their innovation can scale beyond the laboratory. The plant produces premium-grade, transparent recycled polypropylene and TPU suitable for durable products such as footwear, electronics, tableware, toys, and textiles.
The Surat facility is just the beginning. Novoloop aims to operate the plant for 1,000 hours to gather data for commercial-scale design, with projections to process 175,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually by 2030, reducing up to 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year.
For Wang and Yao, childhood friends who once ran a school recycling club, this journey represents both a professional mission and a lifelong passion. Their perseverance reflects the spirit of Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative, launched in 2019 to support scientists, entrepreneurs, and explorers driving solutions in ocean, land, and technology fields.
