Australian firm Samsara Eco tackles the electric car's complex plastic problem

Samsara Eco has developed breakthrough technology to tackle a hidden crisis as electric vehicles create millions of tonnes of unrecyclable plastic waste.

Samsara Eco founder and chief executive Paul Riley says about 90 million cars are produced globally each year, while up to 40 million reach the end of their service life and are headed toward landfill.

Electric vehicles are quietly accelerating a hidden environmental crisis – a surge in complex and difficult-to-recycle plastics that are overwhelming landfills.

Australian climate tech firm Samsara Eco is positioning its new enzymatic recycling process as a way to combat this problem, arguing that without a breakthrough in material circularity, the electric car boom will simply trade one pollution problem for another.

Electric vehicles require sophisticated engineering polymers, such as nylon 66, to withstand the high heat and tolerances inherent in battery components, engine housing, and electrical ­cables. This need for advanced, reinforced materials complicates the disposal of a car when it reaches the end of its life – effectively turning so-called green vehicles into a new source of entrenched plastic waste.

“You’re only going to see an increase in the volume of nylon 66 in particular, as the EV market continues to grow,” Samsara Eco founder and chief executive Paul Riley said, adding that the problem extended across the entire automotive industry.

Mr Riley said that of the approximately 90 million cars produced globally each year, between 25 million and 40 million reached the end of their service life and were headed toward landfill. He said this represented over one million tonnes of plastic waste annually.

“Because of the difficulty in those particular polymers and recycling them, there is a massive carbon issue that can’t be resolved and a circularity issue that can’t be resolved within the automotive industry,” Mr Riley said.

“We deliver the capability for circularity in the industry which currently doesn’t exist.”

Electric vehicles require sophisticated engineering polymers, such as nylon 66 to withstand the high heat and tolerances inherent in battery components, engine housing, and electrical cables.

Samsara can now recycle mixed plastics and fibres including nylon 66, nylon 6 and polyester. It created the world’s first enzymatically recycled nylon 66 garment with Lululemon, the Swiftly top, and also launched a jacket range made from its enzymatically recycled polyester.

This chemical process allows the material to be reused repeatedly without losing quality – a crucial differentiator from traditional recycling methods.

Mr Riley said traditional mechanical recycling processes struggled with the mixed polymers, glass fibre infusion, and specialised coatings – like the silicone on airbags – found in modern automotive components.

“You can imagine, once it is glass fibre infused, or once it is coated, like airbags are, with silicon, there are very few pathways to recyclability. They just can’t be recycled. So we deliver that circularity and supply chain security that they’re looking for.”

Samsara Eco’s recycling plant at Jerrabomberra near Canberra.

Mr Riley said carmakers and the industry’s supply chain had already shown a willingness to absorb the cost of this “circular polymer” in an effort to combat a growing environmental crisis.

He said Samsara’s success with global apparel brand Lululemon, which plans to incorporate the recycled fibre into 20 per cent of its portfolio, was driving significant engagement with the automotive sector.

A big challenge remains. Mr Riley said Australian laws needed to be strengthened to ensure components of cars could be recycled, saying the federal government should adopt Europe’s policies. Under the EU’s End-of-Life Vehicle Directive, carmakers must use 20 per cent recycled plastics in their vehicles – 15 per cent of which must be circular.

“Without legislation, and a level playing field, the bad actors are not penalised,” Mr Riley said.

“That’s why I support initiatives like the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive in Europe. That directive also has staging in it, which will see plastics, or recycled plastics, in each car increased over a 10-year period, and the increased amount of circular materials in that car increased. So I believe that legislation will drive change. It will drive supply chain change, which is going to be imperative for industries to succeed in delivering the carbon footprint reduction they’re looking for.”

Samsara Eco's enzyme production lab at Jerrabomberra near Canberra.

He said businesses and the broader economy would benefit. “A CSIRO report has suggested that if we double our circularity rates, you’d see a $26bn improvement in our national GDP and reducing greenhouse gases by about 14 per cent.”

Following trials in NSW, Samsara Eco is working with engineering partner KBR to construct its first major commercial-scale facility. That plant is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2028. The firm’s long-term goal is to change “50 years of supply chain habits” and ensure millions of cars reaching end of life each year become a resource, not a toxic legacy.

Electric vehicles require sophisticated engineering polymers, such as nylon 66 to withstand the high heat and tolerances inherent in battery components, engine housing, and electrical cables.

Samsara Eco's recycling plant at Jerrabomberra near Canberra.

Samsara Eco's enzyme production lab at Jerrabomberra near Canberra.

Originally published as Australian firm Samsara Eco tackles the electric car's complex plastic problem