Stuff4life
Problem Addressed
Over 15000 tonnes of workwear is consumed each year and within that there are many complex PPE products. At the moment the only options are landfill or burning, however neither of these options are sustainable.
Overview Of Start-up
Stuff4life’s mission is to bring polyester circularity to the UK through starting to recover the constituents of it and feed them back into plastic manufacturing. It is focussed on the recycling of PPE products, for example polycotton trousers, hi-vis vests and protective outerwear. Stuff4Life is developing a flexible chemical recycling process for workwear and PPE that can cope with the mix of materials of these products.
What Makes The Start-up Innovative
There is no infrastructure in place to properly recover the plastic in garments. There is limited recycling and most goes to energy recovery. Our chemical recycling process allows most garments to be broken down and their elements recovered.
How The Start-up Has Been Designed To Scale Up Quickly
It is a batch process and can be established fairly cheaply almost anywhere.