A school trip to a waste-transfer facility turned into an eye-opening experience for Miranda Wang. Now, a decade later, Wang is leading a plastic upcycling company that has drawn interest from major investors.
As detailed by Forbes Australia, Wang first realized the extent of the world's plastic waste crisis at age 16, when her school visited Vancouver's South Waste Transfer Station, a facility that sorts and compacts waste before transporting it to nearby landfills.
There, as Wang watched mounds upon mounds of plastic end up in a pit, she realized just how low plastic recycling rates actually are.
"I was extremely surprised when I visited this facility in 10th grade to see how much plastic was ending up in this waste transfer station and going to the landfill, which this transfer station is only a tiny fraction of," Wang told the publication.
The world produces more than 450 million tons of plastic every year, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. However, only 9% of plastics are recycled globally, and some countries have even lower rates.
Wang and her best friend, Jeanny Yao, co-president of her school's environment club, began brainstorming ways to tackle this waste crisis.
First, they considered finding bacteria to "eat" plastic, a nonbiodegradable material that can contaminate ecosystems for generations. The concept may sound like science fiction, but researchers have indeed discovered tiny organisms with promising plastic-gobbling capabilities.
Their work ultimately attracted the attention of TED conferences, and they traveled to California to give a TED Talk. After that, support began pouring in. "People from Africa, India, places we'd never been, were asking what they could do about plastic waste," Wang told Forbes Australia. "We were blown away by the level of interest and impact."
Taking local action is an effective way to support cleaner, healthier communities. Wang and Yao realized their project could turn into a lifelong career. They met their first investor in 2015, when they were still students, and have since launched the lifecycling company Novoloop.
Novoloop upcycles hard-to-recycle plastics into high-value materials to keep them in circulation. The company's process also generates 41% less carbon pollution than traditional methods.
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Definitely 👍 In 2019, iconic watchmaker Rolex named Wang a Laureate of the Rolex Awards, providing Novoloop with funding and international visibility.
Rolex has continued supporting Novoloop through its Perpetual Planet Initiative, which backs projects aimed at preserving the planet for future generations.
"One of the first, like, 'aha!' moments I had in relation to the Rolex Awards was seeing the many decades of history this program has had, the types of things achieved by this community of laureates, and individuals, there's nothing more humbling to be told, like, you belong here … as part of this community," Wang told Forbes Australia.
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