The world is facing a plastic crisis.

Out of all the world’s plastics, 79% are sent to landfills or dumped in the ocean, while only 9% are recycled. The result is that as much as 28 billion pounds of plastic end up in the ocean each year.

To combat this crisis, Resynergi has found new and productive ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic and to minimize its impacts on the environment—all from its headquarters here in SOMO Village.

We spoke with Brian Bauer, CEO and Co-Founder of Resynergi, to learn more. 

What does Resynergi do?

Using energy-efficient, low-emissions pyrolysis, we are able to convert traditionally non-recyclable plastics into profitable fuel and chemical feedstock for recycling to virgin plastic. 

Microwaves power our uniquely designed, compact system. Clean fuels produced by the Resynergi system are an alternative to refined oil products. And our low carbon-intensity fuels are extracted from waste, not the earth.

Our mission is to make Earth a better place to live by reducing greenhouse gas emissions while cleaning plastic waste.

What was the “fist-on-table” moment that led to Resynergi being founded? 

Post-dotcom collapse in 2001, and after years of searching for viable green technologies, Jason Tanne, Co-Founder of Resynergi, proposed that we start a company with great impact.  

I was just finishing my business degree at UCLA after exiting from a nice telecom

semiconductor company and just said, “Right on, this is it. It’s time to make a real difference.”  

The concept was feasible, impactful, and profitable.

What makes your Resynergi’s mission such an important one?

One word: plastic. 

In the modern context, our mission is important because we’re figuring out how to reduce, reuse, and recycle it to ultimately end its wastefulness. 

If Resynergi could inspire people to do one thing, what would it be?

Believe.  

Believe that there is now a technology that can truly enable the practical, profitable, local collection of plastic that will truly be remade into virgin plastic. 

The oil and plastic industries have hypothetically suggested that all of this plastic could and would be recycled.  

It’s been theoretically possible, but the will wasn’t there, and the development of commercialized technology wasn’t adequately pursued.  

Now, thanks to recent consumer pushes and basic funding of technologies like Resynergi’s, it’s really starting to happen.

Why did you choose to operate your business at SOMO Village? 

We looked at standalone sites near the airport and other locations, but the beauty of SOMO Village is the community of progressiveness that makes it a great place to share approaches to starting new companies.  

We have been here since 2016, back when SocoNexus existed. There, we could grow adjacent to other small and starting companies.  

And the new SOMO Cowork takes some of that original thinking to a whole new level in many ways. 

If you could fast-forward 10 years down the road, what impact do you hope Resynergi will have made on the world by then and why?

By then, we will have over 1,000 plastic processing sites globally, eliminating over 10 million tons per year of plastic and reducing GHG by over 5 million tons per year.   

Citizens of the world will be motivated to sort and recycle, knowing that almost all plastic materials are truly recycled.  

Also, there would be jobs created to process the plastic locally in all corners of the earth.   

Finally, 10 years from now, much of the product coming from these processors will be hydrogen and pure carbon, with minimal changes to the current platform, to produce in proportions appropriate to use at that time.

To learn more about Resynergi, visit them online. 

And if you want to operate your business in a community where you’re surrounded by innovative and sustainable organizations, then we invite you to take a tour of SOMO Cowork or get in touch with us today to learn more about the professional facilities available within the community.