Plastic Garbage Is Transformed Into Construction Materials

Plastic that would never be recycled can now be reused by ByFusion.

“Plastic is not created equally,” says Heidi Kujawa, CEO of ByFusion. “It’s super complex, which is why this problem is really broken.”

Despite all those triangles and arrows on bottles, most plastic is not recyclable. Because the entire process is dirty and cumbersome, even materials that can be recycled are often not recycled at all, resulting in your recycling bin being emptied into a landfill instead.

A new US company, ByFusion, uses machines that can fuse up to 30 pounds of plastic – regardless of its type or condition – into blocks that can be used for construction, furniture, walls, and more. Already, a bench was erected in Boise, with projects in Tucson and Los Angeles to follow.

A radical idea has been launched.

Founder Kujawa knew she was in a bind when raising funds for her business: Her company innovates within waste management and construction, both of which require fresh ideas – but “VCs typically don’t invest in these sectors,” Kujawa says. As a result of the sale of her previous company, she bootstrapped the early phases of ByFusion herself, uncovering the market and the technology before approaching investors for funding. In response to the shifting culture, with business leaders talking more about climate solutions, she raised a $1.5 million seed round.

Who is the customers, and what kind of products do they want? 

ByFusion isn’t just interested in selling blocks of plastic. It provides the machines that produce the blocks, which are designed in such a way that a wide range of customers, from waste management companies to municipalities, can adapt them to suit their needs and produce the blocks themselves. Kujawa argues that it can aid cities and companies (and even universities) in reducing landfill waste and logistics costs. Any surplus will be repurchased by ByFusion and sold to market on their behalf.

This type of innovation needs to continuously take place in all industries to combat the growing global climate crisis. Here at V7, we make great efforts to innovate our internal processes on a constant basis to benefit the environment, from reducing company printing to implementing more efficient online procedures to minimise the total climate impact from client to candidate.

We encourage everyone to take a moment to think about three things that you can implement today that will minimise your climate impact. For ideas, try making a google search for “easy ways to reduce climate change”. And please leave a comment any ideas you find that worth sharing!