Loop Industries Inc. (LOOP)

[Harrybones]

Loop Industries' Adel Essaddam nominated for prestigious 2018 Pritzker Emerging Environmentalist Award

Nelson A. Switzer

Chief Growth Officer at Loop Industries

My new friend and colleague, Adel Essaddam (https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/adel-essaddam/) has been nominated for this years Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award. The Award is presented each year to promising young innovators recognized as champions for the environment. Adel's contributions and accomplishments at Loop Industries are stunning. In his application, Adel provides a wonderful account of his journey, the technology he has helped establish, which is poised to solve a large portion of the plastic crisis, and what the future may hold.

Learn more about the Pritzker Genius Award: https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/pritzker-genius/

Read Adel's letter of application below, and follow Adel's team on Twitter (@loopindustries) and on Instagram (loopindustries).

The technology I helped invent that’s poised to disrupt the $110 billion plastic industry and save the world from plastic waste

My name is Adel. I am a young research scientist at Loop Industries helping to lead a team dedicated to solving the plastic crisis.

Our world is drowning in plastic. Every minute one million PET bottles are made but only 9% of them are recycled, By 2050, it’s estimated that there will be, by weight, more plastic in the ocean than fish. Imagine that. When you go fishing in 2050 you will be more likely to catch plastic than fish.

We know that over the last six decades, 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic have been generated, of which at least 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste; material abandoned to landfills and our shared rivers and oceans. We’ve decided to put a stop to this.

At LOOP, we believe that making the transition to a circular economy will help solve this crisis. Instead of the traditional make, use and dispose philosophy that has been at the core of the plastic industry for decades, we must ensure that everything humanity extracts from the Earth is reused safely and constantly creates and preserves social and environmental value.

That is what drove us to invent our disruptive depolymerization technology, the Loop™ Process. It allows us to deconstruct Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), polyester you find in water bottles, soda bottles, food packaging, clothing, carpets and more into its monomers and then reconstruct them to make virgin quality PET ready for reuse. Our process needs no heat and no pressure and finally provides the world a way to reuse what was once considered waste material. Even material rejected by the best mechanical recycling technologies in the world because it is contaminated with food stuff, paper and other additives can finally be recovered, recycled and reused. This means no PET or polyester fibers need be sent to landfill ever again.

And why else is our technology unmatched? Because we don’t “recycle” PET plastic waste, we up-cycle it. When you are able to take a product that has a net negative economic and environmental impact and turn that on its head, where you create and preserve economic and environmental value, you have up-cycled. Taking waste polyester (PET) fibers from carpet and clothing and up-cycling them to virgin quality PET resin suitable for food and beverage packaging, furniture makers, clothing and more is a breakthrough that consumer goods companies, governments, non-governmental organizations, consumers and investors have been seeking for over a decade. Now it is here and it is possible only because our unique and disruptive technology allows us to close the LOOP on PET and polyester fiber, remaking virgin quality PET indefinitely. As our Founder and CEO explains it, “it’s like taking a cake and breaking it down to it’s starting compounds: whole eggs, flour, sugar and then remaking a whole new cake.”

And now, the major brands are taking notice.

For instance, at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Evian announced that they are teaming up with LOOP to achieve their pledge of having 100% recycled PET by 2025: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/sponsor-content-revolution-plasticrecycling/

I started my career fueled by a passion for Sustainability and talent for problemsolving.

I joined LOOP in early 2016 as a young lab technician knowing that the time for small incremental moves in this world is over. If we want to save the world, it’s time for big moves. So I got to work.

As I learned more and gained an understanding of LOOP’s technology, I realized that even an exceptional process like theirs can always be reinvented. Teaming up with my brother, we reshaped the technology by asking one question, “what can we do better?” In short order we were able to pull apart and put Loop’s technology back together with three fundamental breakthroughs that dramatically increased the viability of the technology: 1) water free depolymerization; 2) a considerable energy use reduction; and 3) and a remarkably more efficient and streamlined process. What remained is a scalable, efficient and commercially costeffective technology.

In 2017, I became a Research Scientist and worked on the process development for our new technology and in 2018, I was promoted as the new Lead Research Scientist responsible for overseeing the work of 11 R&D, process development and analytical chemists. In addition, I am a valued voice in assessing potential technical and engineering partners all over the world.

The $100,000 prize would be shared between me and my brother, my best friend. It would allow me to complete my University curriculum, enhance my knowledge of chemical science and apply that learning to solving more of the world’s challenges. It would also allow me to complete an MBA so that I can enhance my business comprehension.

As a 23-year-old, I believe that I have so much knowledge to gain and puzzles to solve. But I need help getting over an obstacle, which is why I have applied for this prestigious award.

Thank you for your consideration,

Sincerely,

Adel Essaddam