Being selected for Forbes 30 Under 30 is a major milestone. What does that recognition mean to you personally, and how does it support MacroCycle’s mission to transform textile and plastic waste into valuable new materials? 

Personally, it is one of the greatest honours that I can share with my parents and all the sacrifices and hard work they have put in to raise me into the person I am today. Being one of the few Dominican-born individual to have ever made it to the Forbes list is a phenomenal recognition of not just me, but how far my parents have come in a single generation. Going from rural farmers in a developing nation to their son being recognized at the global stage is something none of us could have ever imagined, but now that we have rejoiced, we take full advantage of this opportunity to continue to create a better future for our family and everyone. 

For MacroCycle, this recognition goes on to add credibility to how the work we are doing is not only impactful, but exciting. Since the public announcement, we have had customers, partners, suppliers and other ecosystem players reaching back out to either connect or continue the conversation going, and we have been able to fully leverage that to elevate MacroCycle’s work as we continue to scale up the company. 

Can you walk us through what MacroCycle actually does differently? What is your process, and why does turning plastic polymers into ring-shaped 'macrocycles' change everything? 

Happy to. Before explaining MacroCycle, let me just highlight that one of the main determinants of quality in polyester is the length of the polymer. In order to reach virgin-grade status, the polymer length needs to be increased to achieve the required “IV” value needed for proper spinning. 

Most chemical recyclers rely on breaking all the bonds of the polymers to produce monomers that can be used as a drop-in feedstock to make the high-quality long polymers required by the industry. The challenge with this process is that it is reliant on the petrochemical industry, which means you are using energy to break down the polymer, and then using energy to go through all the traditional processing steps that made the original polymer. Not only is it energy intensive, but you are not producing monomers out of waste, which is really hard to compete in price with monomers made out of oil. This means depolymerizers may require larger scale and capital investment to be able to reach price parity. 

MacroCycle in the other hand bypasses the entire petrochemical industry and the need to break all the bonds of the polymer through our macrocyclic chemistry. What we do is that we shift the thermal equilibrium of the linear polymers to turn them into macrocycles. In this state, we can force them to undergo a process called “Ring-Opening Polymerization” so the polymers are forced to combine with each other as they open back up to linear polymers. This way, we are able to increase the length of the polymer to meet IV specs without ever having to depolymerize the polymer or rely on the petrochemical industry, giving MacroCycle an opportunity to meet price parity at significantly smaller capacity and capital investments due to our much lower cost and capital intensity. That is how MacroCycle differentiates itself with our technology. 

Textile waste is notoriously difficult to recycle because modern clothes are made from complex blends. You've said that 'the challenge to recycling is that you can never predict your waste.' How does MacroCycle handle that unpredictability, and what makes textiles a particularly exciting opportunity for you? 

MacroCycle has been able to navigate this challenge by developing a system of solvents that is incredibly selective towards the polyester. That means that while our solvents can target and extract the polyester, it basically leaves all the other blends and contaminants as inert. It is definitely an oversimplification of the reality of the process, but we are able to exploit this differences in selectivity to ensure we can handle a broad range of waste as we continue to scale up. 

This selectivity is an unique advantage we saw our technology being able to bring to this industry compared to packaging. Due to the average homogeneity of feedstock in packaging, mechanical recyclers work really well in that space. But in textile, mechanical recyclers have limited applicability, and other chemical recyclers are too expensive, meaning MacroCycle could come in to exploit this differentiation in selectivity and ability to upgrade the polymer without breaking it down to achieve what the industry needs. 

One of the hard truths you've spoken openly about is that, right now, it's cheaper to produce virgin plastic than to collect and recycle it and, often, brands won't pay a premium unless regulations force them to. How do you build a commercially viable business in that environment and has that reality changed how MacroCycle operates? 

For the better or the worse, that reality has shaped how MacroCycle has conducted business from the very beginning. The approach that we have taken is that everything we do is for the goal of achieving a price parity at the smallest scale possible. Instead of optimizing our efforts in pushing brands to pay a premium, we have dedicated our resources in honing in the science to ensure we can compete with virgin costs as soon as possible. And if regulation is ever passed that would allow us to capture a premium, that would simply allow us to capture even greater margins, but not required for our survival. We believe that once we make recycling profitable, it is only a matter of time until recycling becomes an economic inevitability and the de facto way of producing plastics. 

MacroCycle has been vocal about the need for Extended Producer Responsibility legislation. What should governments and the textiles industry be doing right now, and are you optimistic that regulation will arrive at the speed the planet needs? 

Governments need to better understand how these regulations produce so much benefit to the people and the nation. From greater workforce economic development to domestic supply chain resiliency, an EPR legislation would create momentum for the US to grow again into a manufacturing powerhouse. Unfortunately, I don’t think that at our current rate, regulation will arrive at the speed the planet needs, but with the proper messaging, I believe we can speed it up. The last time I was lobbying at Capitol Hill, the message that really resonated is that if we recycle our textiles and polyester, we would actually be reutilizing hydrocarbons, and decrease the need for the oil we dig up to go into single/short usage petrochemicals, and more can go towards fuel and strategic resources to strengthen domestic supply chain and lessen foreign nation influences in our economy. That message landed well and hope that it does speed up our pathway towards a legislation. 

MacroCycle's vision is to become the largest producer of PET and polyester plastics through upcycling. What does the textiles recycling industry look like in ten years if things go right and what is the single biggest obstacle standing between here and there? 

In 10 years, I envision at least 10% of all the textiles that we globally produced to be recycled, and not ending up in our landfills, oceans or be incinerated. That would be great progress from the <1% where we are today. With that, I hope it becomes an industry where every conversation will be about how do we ensure that the choices that we wear today are the resources of tomorrow and not the pollution of the past. But to achieve, the biggest challenge will be scaling up the technologies while ensuring they continue to function as well as they have been proven to work at the lab, pilot and demo scales. Is not going to be easy, yet that is where so many awesome innovators come in to the picture, and I am incredibly excited to see the great impact all these innovators will create in the years to come!