Page 27 from: January / February 2013

27January/February 2013

Mike Biddle wins ‘environmental
Nobel Prize’
Almost 20 years to the day after the company started
life in a garage in California, world-leading plastics
recycler MBA Polymers and its president Mike Biddle
scooped two prestigious international awards in the
space of just seven days towards the end of last year:
the Gothenburg Award and GoingGreen’s ‘Silicon Valley
company of the year award’.

On December 4 last year, MBA Polymers’ President and founder
Dr Mike Biddle was awarded the 2012
Gothenburg Award for Sustainable
Development – widely recognised as the
Nobel Prize equivalent of the environ-

mental world. The award, which is worth
one million Swedish krona, is adminis-
tered and funded by a coalition of the
City of Gothenburg and 12 companies.
The theme for this year’s award was
‘closing the loop’. Compared to
nature’s own eco-cycle in which waste
products become valuable in new pro-
cesses, society’s current use of resourc-
es is unsustainable, organisers
explained. For example, it is estimated
that less than 10% of plastics in the
world are recycled.
Raw materials are converted into prod-
ucts and eventually become waste,
leading to resource shortages, energy
wastage and other problems. Therefore,
entrepreneurship and innovative solu-
tions are required to break this chain
and instead create functioning eco-
cycles, they contend.
Dr Biddle was awarded the prize for
‘combining deep technical expertise
and entrepreneurial brilliance with a
drive to close the loop’, according to
the jury’s citation. ‘His solutions con-
tribute to reducing waste and saving
the earth’s non-renewable resources.
Dr Biddle inspires other entrepreneurs
to develop innovative hi-tech solutions
in the waste sector.’

GoingGreen –
Company of the Year

Several days earlier, in late November,
MBA Polymers had been named Going-
Green’s ‘Company of the Year’. This was

announced at AlwaysOn’s annual two-
day GoingGreen event where CEOs
from green technology companies meet
the ‘movers and shakers’ from the big-
gest industries on earth. Green technol-
ogy innovators are transforming trillion-
dollar industries, and the solutions they
are delivering not only promise to clean
up pollution and restore ecosystems,
but to bring abundance and prosperity,
the organisers state.
MBA Polymers was selected by the
AlwaysOn editorial team and global
industry experts based on a set of five
criteria: innovation; market potential;
commercialisation; stakeholder value;
and media buzz.
GoingGreen states: ‘Whilst consumers
have been actively participating in recy-
cling with waste products such as
paper and metals, awareness of plas-
tics recycling has lagged, with far less
plastic recycled compared to the
amount of metal, for example. Plastic
has become an integral part of every-
day life and has applications and uses
that make it more valuable than steel
on a cost-per-weight basis. Raising
awareness of this important trend is
part of MBA Polymers’ mission. The
company is a compelling example of
how determination and success can
build an industrial process that
reclaims what’s been used and is
unwanted and creates something
brand new – whilst diminishing the
strain on our planet.’

The Big SHFT
MBA Polymers has also received rec-
ognition from The Big SHFT as part of
its series entitled ‘10 Innovators
Changing Our World’, which highlights
the efforts of people who are leading
the planet towards a more sustainable
future – and inspiring everyone they
touch along the way.
SHFT hailed Dr Biddle as a ‘Plastics Pio-
neer’ in a video which can be viewed at
www.shft.com. Additionally, shft.com
released a three-minute documentary
on MBA Polymers as one of the 10
innovators spearheading important
changes around the world.

P l a s t i c s By Manfred Beck

MBA’s success
story
Mike Biddle started up MBA Poly-
mers in California in 1992, shortly
after completing his chemistry doc-
torate. He wanted to prove that
plastics from complex waste
streams could be recycled into
high-quality raw material. He
developed techniques for separat-
ing and refining plastic waste to
produce quality-assured raw mate-
rials that replace new plastics.
Since its start-up, MBA Polymers
has been preventing post-consum-
er plastic waste from disappearing
into landfills and transforming it
into high-quality source material
for consumer electronics, appli-
ances and other plastic products.
Today, MBA Polymers is a world
leader at producing post-consumer
recycled plastics from end-of-life
durable goods. The company oper-
ates large-scale industrial plants in
the USA, China, the UK and Austria
with a combined processing capac-
ity of up to 175 000 tonnes per year.
www.mbapolymers.com

MBA Polymers’ President and founder
Dr Mike Biddle shows the Gothenburg

Award for Sustainable Development.

A view of the production hall at MBA Polymers in the UK.

Delivery of plastic waste at MBA’s
plant in Worksop,UK.

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