Globally, just under 10 per cent of plastic waste is recycled, leading to nearly 5 billion tonnes of accumulated waste in landfills, oceans, and cities. Much of this waste comprises flexible packaging single-use polythene bags, and food-contaminated plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled.
To address this gap, PolyCycl, a recycling solutions company founded in 2016, has developed a patented thermochemical technology that converts hard-to-recycle plastics into liquefied hydrocarbon oils. The oils, in turn, serve as high-value circular feedstock in the manufacture of low-carbon plastics, renewable chemicals and sustainable fuels.
As Amit Tandon, Founder and CEO, PolyCycl, explains, “Plastics are made from fossil-extracted crude oil processed by petrochemical companies. The crude is refined into derivatives, then used to manufacture plastics. Polyolefins are the most common plastics and consist of carbon and hydrogen. Our technology converts them back into a liquid hydrocarbon form, purifies and upgrades it, and returns it to the petrochemical value chain at its original carbon stage.”
“By transforming discarded plastics into a format acceptable to the point of origin of those materials, we convert an environmental pain into a usable raw material. This creates a true plastic-to-plastic circular pathway, enabling boundless circularity for these materials,” he says.
PolyCycl has eight international patents granted across India and the US, with more in the offing. Its technology is aligned with India’s Extended Producer Responsibility framework for plastic packaging, notified in 2022, which mandates increasing recycling targets and compulsory use of recycled content, including 10 per cent in flexible packaging and 30 per cent in rigid packaging, by 2025–26.
“Our business model is primarily technology licensing. PolyCycl provides the core proprietary process and equipment. The licensee is responsible for financing, constructing and operating the plant. We work with implementation partners like L&T, which supports the development of detailed engineering packages and plant deployment. As the technology provider, our role extends beyond licensing. We support the execution, commissioning, start-up, stabilisation and performance optimisation of the plant to ensure it operates efficiently and meets expected output standards,” Tandon says.
Key target sectors include the petrochemical industry, which manufactures plastics; the chemical industry, which has the expertise to operate such processing assets; and the waste management sector, which already aggregates plastic waste through municipal contracts. In addition, mechanical recyclers looking to expand into chemical recycling represent a significant opportunity.
PolyCycl in January raised a Series A round from Rainmatter, the investment arm of Zerodha.
The company plans to use the money to advance R&D, establish advanced circularity labs for analysing its hydrocarbon (pyrolysis) oils, and strengthen product-side capabilities by expanding its technical teams.
Over the next decade, PolyCycl aims to enable the recycling of nearly 1.6 million tonnes of waste plastic annually, producing around 1.1 million kilo tonnes per annum of circular pyrolysis oils.
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Published on March 16, 2026