Why It Matters: Two of the world's biggest material problems are sitting next to each other. We think they have one answer.

The plastic problem: About 9 percent is recycled

After decades of effort and billions of dollars invested, only about 9 percent of the world's plastic waste is recycled. Another 19 percent is incinerated, about half goes to landfill, and 22 percent is mismanaged (OECD, 2019 data).

Sorting is not the bottleneck. AI-powered sorting can now identify waste with up to 98 percent accuracy, but multilayer films, black plastics and flexible packaging still tend to default to landfill or incineration, and plants often recover only about a quarter of what comes in (World Economic Forum). Identifying plastic is not the same as having a buyer for it.

The concrete problem: The most-used building material is also a major emitter.

Concrete is the second most consumed material on Earth after water, at about 30 billion tonnes a year (Nature). Cement, the binder inside it, is responsible for about 8 percent of global CO2 emissions (World Cement Association).

The industry reports a 25 percent cut in CO2 intensity since 1990 (GCCA). The International Energy Agency notes that total cement emissions are higher than in 2015, and that recent reductions came from lower production, not cleaner production (IEA).

Buildings and construction as a whole account for about 37 percent of global CO2 emissions (GlobalABC).

The gap: Demand

Plastic recycling invested heavily in collecting and sorting. Cement invested heavily in cleaner production. Neither has solved the question that decides everything else: who wants what comes out.

The answer: Give the plastic a job. Give producers a better product.

ReLite+ turns the plastic the recycling system keeps rejecting into an engineered ecofiller. The ECOS Optimization Platform uses the room it creates to build better concrete and asphalt. Concrete and asphalt last for decades and are used in enormous volumes, which makes them a durable home for material that has nowhere else to go.

Recycle what can be recycled. Build with what cannot.

Button: See how it works (links to ReLite+ and ECOS)
Button: Build it with us (links to Partner With Us)