OUR VISION: To create a net zero circular economy for plastic, where plastic pollution is eliminated and where no plastic is burned or buried.
At Mura Technology, we see waste plastic as a valuable resource. By capturing plastics considered unrecyclable and diverting them into an effective closed loop system via HydroPRS™, we aim to prevent plastic entering rivers and oceans, landfills, the soil and ultimately the food chain – defending the natural world – planet and people.
Target feedstock for HydroPRS™ is plastic materials which cannot currently be recycled via traditional mechanical means, including flexible and multi-layered plastics. By capturing these materials and directing them into recycling and away from landfill and incineration, we close the loop on a circular economy, capturing lost value and protecting the environment from plastic pollution.
Net Zero refers to 100% negating the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) produced by human activity through a combination of reducing emissions and absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. An independent Life Cycle Assessment by WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) at the University of Warwick (2023) demonstrates an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by diverting waste plastic away from incineration and into HydroPRS™.
HydroPRS™ converts waste plastics into hydrocarbon products to replace the fossil feedstocks used to create new plastics. Whilst Energy from Waste (incineration) recovers some energy from plastic, none of these processes keep material within a circular economy, which in turn sustains the demand for virgin plastic from fossil-based sources.
A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases that are generated by our actions – from the manufacture and disposal of materials to everyday life. A greenhouse gas is a gas in the Earth’s atmosphere that traps heat. Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activity.
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to understand the environmental impacts of a process or product and also make improvements to energy and resource management. LCAs of Mura’s advanced recycling process, HydroPRS™, have been performed to help better evaluate the impacts, including the carbon footprint of the process, in support of Mura’s sustainability pathway to Net Zero.
This independent LCA of HydroPRS™ by WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick), funded through Innovate UK’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging challenge (SSPP) and focussed on Mura’s first commercial-scale site in Wilton, Teesside, showed:
Conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and Spanish consultancy AIMPLAS, this study compared data from Mura’s hydrothermal process and two unnamed pyrolysis companies, showing that HydroPRS™:
LCAs highlight the importance of generating clear and scientifically robust data and analysis of advanced recycling, which aligns to the ‘transparency’ expectations in the WWF Chemical Recycling Implementation Principles which Mura strongly supports.
Following the publication of the initial results from WMG, further work is now underway to assess the benefits of process improvements, as well as site-specific LCAs for Mura’s ongoing infrastructure developments in the UK, United States and Germany.
The WMG LCA is also consistent with the findings of the Consumer Goods Forum study (2022), to which Mura contributed data and was one of the technologies evaluated.
“As the global economy transitions away from fossil fuels, circular economies must operate at as low an environmental cost as possible. The development of academic LCAs to identify process improvements will help Mura on the pathway to Net Zero, decarbonising the petrochemical sector whilst also reducing demand for fossil oil for plastic production."
