A Circular Future

Rolex Awards Laureate Miranda Wang is transforming one of humanity's greatest waste challenges into a resource for the future. Through her company Novoloop, she is pioneering a new era of circular plastic recycling that could change how the world makes and uses materials forever

- Annabel Tan

On the western coast of India, in the industrious city of Surat, a sleek new factory hums with energy. Inside, mechanical arms glide across stainless-steel pipelines, distillation towers gleam under bright industrial light, and chemical engineers in white coats monitor streams of molten polymer as the substance is reborn into something new. This is no ordinary factory. It does not rely on crude oil or virgin fossil fuels, but instead consumes plastic waste, the very thing the modern world struggles to get rid of.

Completed in March 2024, just months after its January announcement, the plant marks the latest breakthrough by Rolex Awards Laureate Miranda Wang, co-founder of materials innovator Novoloop. The Canadian tech entrepreneur's mission is as ambitious as it is urgent: to revolutionise how we recycle plastic and, in doing so, help build a truly circular economy.

According to the United Nations, the world produces about 400 million tonnes of plastic annually, most of it made from fossil fuels. Yet, only an estimated 9 per cent of that is recycled. Much of it ends up in landfills, incinerators and the oceans, lingering for centuries as microplastics that infiltrate ecosystems and our own bodies. The problem is not just one of pollution, but also of inefficiency: a massive loss of valuable material and energy.

The challenge lies in the nature of polyethylene (PE), the most commonly produced plastic globally: cheap, durable and ubiquitous, but resistant to traditional recycling methods. Wang's vision reimagines plastic not as an end point but as a renewable resource, capable of endless transformation through science.

THE PLASTIC PARADOX

“I've always hated destruction and waste,” Wang says. “My family raised me to love the beauty of nature and I want to protect it.”