Dr Vivek Tandon, Founder, revalyu Group.

What is revalyu's current recycling capacity, and how more is being added with these additional lines?

The Nashik site currently recycles 160 tonnes per day of plastic (PET) which is equivalent to approximately 20 million PET bottles per day. A further 120 tonnes per day of capacity will be added in Q3, 2025 bringing the total site recycling capacity to 240 tonnes per day making it the largest chemical plastic recycling side in the world.

Where does PET waste come from? What are the sources and collection mechanisms? How does revalyu ensure a consistent supply of high-quality PET waste?

Currently, we are collecting PET waste from around 300 kilometres of radius of the plant. We have roped in several suppliers who regularly supply waste materials to us, and these suppliers purchase waste materials from different sources, including businesses and general collections.

What are the steps involved in the PET recycling process such as sorting, cleaning, processing, etc?

Predominantly, there are three processes within the recycling process. The first one is essentially depolymerisation of PET, which effectively means that we add Monoethylene Glycol (MEG) to it, resulting in a chemical reaction that depolymerises the PET. Once PET has been depolymerised, it is in a form where it can be filtered. During this filtration process, all remaining impurities are removed, and you essentially end up with Ester. An Ester is one molecule that is used as a raw material for making polyester, i.e., many (poly) chains of Ester. Once it is produced, Ester is put through a standard continuous polymerisation process, or CP, and that CP again transforms it back to polyester, which are our PET chips. So, these are three stages: Stage 1 is depolymerisation, Stage 2 is filtration, and Stage 3 is repolymerisation of CP into the products that are sold to the customers.

What technologies does revalyu utilise to ensure high-quality recycled PET (rPET)? Which are the industries that use the material?

The products that we produce effectively have the same quality and performance as traditionally made virgin polyester, and hence we are agnostic to where our customers use our end polyester recycled material. Till date, customers are using our products in the textile industry, the packaging industry, the bottling industry, and the automotive industry, and we are also talking and engaging with other industries. To reiterate, we are essentially agnostic to where the customer wants to use the recycled polyester because, in theory, they can use it to replace traditional virgin polyester.

How energy intensive and environment friendly is the recycling process? What are the steps taken to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions?

We use highly advanced patented glycolysis-based recycling technologies and automated processes, which make the manufacturing operations highly optimised, scalable, profitable and easily replicable. The recycled PET is produced using 75% less water and 91% less energy than conventional PET made from oil.

In addition to that, we are using various other environmentally sustainable solutions, such as renewable energy and rainwater collection, and we have already started to take steps to essentially make this one of the world's lowest carbon footprint polyesters, even though it is a recycled polyester, which is clearly more sustainable than conventionally made polyesters. Our strategy and roadmap are to become CO2 neutral. All the water used in the plant is recycled one using the latest RO plant, and no contaminated water is discharged into the environment. The company has finalised plans to switch to renewable energy and biomass for heat energy by the end of 2025.

How does the company handle contaminants and rejects in the recycling process?

For every one tonne of PET flake we put into process, we have less than three per cent wastages. And these three per cent wastages are the contamination. All of these contaminations are treated onsite, where we have our own water filtration systems, and our own solid waste processing system, and we are actually a zero liquid discharge site.

How automated is the entire process?

From the position where flakes arrived at the site and fed into the process until the end product is shipped from the plant, there is absolutely no human intervention. The whole process is fully automated, and it operates 24X7 and 365 days a year.

Finally, given the size of the country and volume of waste generated, are there any plans to expand operations in other locations?

India generates around 1.7 million metric tonnes of PET waste per year. Of these 1.7 million metric tonnes of PET waste generated every year, the country collects around 1.63 million metric tonnes of waste a year. Our site is treating approximately 110,000 metric tonnes of end product a year, which means that we have a huge potential to expand throughout India. We are looking and investigating other locations in India. We have already announced our plans to build our next plant in Georgia, the USA. We intend and have a target to process up to 1,000 metric tonnes per day by 2030, i.e., we are looking to build another 5 to 10 plants on our own or with partners who would like to work with us. All the new plants we are building are based on the exact design and footprint that we have built here at the Nashik site. The technology that we have developed here, the know-how, the process, and the engineer of all our future sites will be based around the particular blueprint.

Dr Vivek Tandon has been actively involved in the plastics recycling sector since 2004 and is the Founder and driving force behind the formation of revalyu Resources GmbH (previously known as perPETual Technologies). Vivek is an experienced international executive and proven entrepreneur with a background in building technology companies spanning the telecom, renewable energy and environmental sectors with a particular focus on building sustainable businesses in Asia and developing countries.

During his career, Vivek co-founded a number of successful technology companies such a Aloe Private Equity (an environmental focus investment fund), Greenko Group PLC (renewable energy), EnvironCOM (Waste Electronic Recycling) and has held several board and senior executive management positions in companies including Viventures, CIENA, Kymata, British Telecom PLC and Motorola. He has published numerous papers and has several patents.

In addition to a strong interest in the environment and social sustainability Vivek has a personal passion for development and social justice in Africa. When he finds the time, he is an avid squash player. Vivek has a PhD from University College, London, and a BSc in Physics from Imperial College. 

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