[Busan / News2Day reporters Shim Ji-hoon and Yoon Na-ra] The B-Startup Challenge, Busan’s leading startup investment competition, will hold its sixth edition on June 19 at the Busan Esports Arena. News2Day met with Kibaek Kwon, CEO of Terracle, which won the silver prize at the third competition in 2021, to discuss the company’s environmental technology, the background to the award, and its progress since then.
The following is an edited question-and-answer interview with CEO Kibaek Kwon.
Q. Could you briefly introduce Terracle’s history and technology?
Terracle is still an early-stage startup that has been operating for less than three years, and we currently have about 17 team members. We use depolymerization technology to return waste plastics to their original raw materials and then sell those recovered materials.
To explain depolymerization in more detail, we mainly recycle PET, or polyester. Most people associate PET with packaging, but the clothing I am wearing can also be made from 100% PET. When PET is drawn into long strands, it becomes fiber. PET is produced by combining a white powder called TPA with a transparent liquid called ethylene glycol. That process is called polymerization, and breaking it back apart is depolymerization.
Mechanical recycling crushes waste plastics and remolds them into products. Terracle instead returns PET to its original feedstocks, TPA (terephthalic acid) and EG (ethylene glycol), and sells those materials. The technology began receiving significant industry attention around 2021 and is now described as a next-generation recycling method. Major Korean and global companies are also conducting research and development to commercialize it.
Q. How were you able to turn this technology into a working business?
Depolymerization has existed as a concept for well over 30 years. It is introduced even in basic chemistry courses, but few people attempted to commercialize it because of environmental and economic challenges. I simply had a problem I wanted to solve, found a technology that could address it, built a team, and began taking on the challenge under the name Terracle.
Before starting this business, I worked at an advertising company. At the time, I was involved with an advertisement claiming that a certain beverage container could be recycled, even though the container was actually very difficult to recycle. That experience made me want to solve the underlying problem. I joined the KAIST Open Venture Lab program, consulted professors, and searched technologies from government-funded institutes and universities. I concluded that depolymerization was the technology capable of addressing the problem at its root.
Q. What led to your award at the 2021 startup investment competition?
It was actually the silver prize rather than an excellence award. The silver prize included a KRW 50 million investment. At the time, I did not even have a business registration certificate and was the only prospective founder in the competition. These programs usually separate prospective founders from existing startups, so I appreciated that this competition was willing to provide an opportunity based on the strength of the idea.
Q. Terracle appears to be growing quickly. How would you describe the situation?
We are growing rapidly. We continue to increase hiring and are preparing to expand our production facilities. We need to grow quickly to meet current customer demand, but aside from that necessity, the growth itself does not feel particularly burdensome.
Q. The environmental contribution appears significant.
A common question about chemical recycling is whether the recycling process itself creates more environmental pollution. All of our processes operate below 100°C, and we reuse chemical solvents and catalysts. We also reuse as much process water as possible. We are preparing for full-scale mass production, and we expect the environmental and industrial impact to be substantial.
Q. Terracle has also received Green Technology Certification.
The certification is issued by the Ministry of Environment. Because we do not sell directly to general consumers, it is not strictly necessary for sales. However, we believed it would be valuable to visibly demonstrate that the process itself is environmentally responsible.
The Ministry of Environment has clear standards for the certification. In simple terms, at least 95% of the waste must be converted, and our result was 97%. The evaluation is not based only on documents; reviewers visit the company and observe the process from beginning to end. We demonstrated that the process operates at low temperatures and uses relatively little energy. We received the first certification for waste-plastic recycling under the category of monomer production through chemical decomposition of plastics.
Q. How competitive are Terracle’s recovered feedstocks in terms of price?
We do not manufacture recycled PET directly. Instead, we sell PET feedstocks to customers that use PET. Our materials are more expensive than conventional petrochemical products, but even at our current small production scale, they cost about half as much as comparable overseas recycled products. Prices are expected to continue falling as we achieve economies of scale.
Recycling waste that is otherwise difficult to process also provides value beyond the price competitiveness of recycled TPA and recycled EG. It supports customers’ ESG goals, reduces waste-treatment costs, enables closed-loop systems, and contributes to carbon reduction. Customers appear willing to pay a modest premium because the feedstocks can be applied reliably to high-value products and used in large-scale production lines.
Q. Who are your main customers? Is the technology limited to large companies?
Because the industry requires very large facilities and accumulated technical capabilities, our materials are currently used primarily by large enterprises and mid-sized companies. It is an extremely large-scale industry. Even several hundred metric tons of our product can be consumed by a customer in a single day, so we are expanding quickly to meet demand.
Q. Are there plans to relocate or expand the factory?
Our original plan was to build a larger facility in Gangseo-gu, Busan, and we are still doing our best to pursue that option. However, there are currently no suitable sites or properties available. Through the Ministry of Environment’s regulatory sandbox, our business classification was assigned a code other than waste treatment, yet some industrial complexes and local governments still reject us by phone. We are therefore reviewing available properties throughout Korea without limiting ourselves to a specific region.
Q. A factory in Busan could also create local employment.
Our process is fundamentally automated, but there is still substantial research required at each stage. We hire production workers, but we especially need research personnel. Many Terracle employees graduated from universities in Busan, yet the city has relatively few companies in chemistry or environmental technology. High-quality jobs related to chemistry, circular resources, and sustainable materials in Busan would create valuable opportunities for young job seekers in the region.
Q. Terracle signed an agreement with the Busan branch of the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation to recycle marine waste from Busan Port.
One of our customers introduced us to the marine environment corporation. The organization collects marine waste, but the problem is that there are few options other than incineration after collection. We were told that it had explored various alternatives, but the high levels of salt and contaminants made the waste difficult to use in mechanical recycling.
The waste we received included discarded fishing nets, ropes, and marine plastics. Our technology can remove salt and contaminants without washing, which makes the materials recyclable. We plan to work toward recycling marine waste from across Korea and will continue close cooperation with the Busan branch to help protect the marine environment.
Q. What are Terracle’s future plans and long-term ambitions?
Terracle believes plastic is one of the most convenient materials humanity has created. Global plastic production has never declined in human history, and realistically it is difficult to replace today. Nearly every industry—including hygiene, medicine, fashion, automobiles, and electronics—requires plastic in various forms.
Terracle’s goal is therefore to enable plastic to be used indefinitely without environmental pollution. Technology is the key. Rather than leading with the claim that we are environmentally friendly or doing good, we believe it is most important to offer competitive products through technology and help customers and industries build a circular-resource society together.
Internally, I want to create an environment where team members can fully develop their abilities, produce meaningful results, and receive adequate rewards. Rather than defining a dream workplace only through work-life balance or easy work, I hope Terracle becomes a place where people challenge their limits, continue growing, and contribute to humanity through shared success.
