Düsseldorf/Berlin, 15 August 2025.
The non-profit cooldown°earth foundation congratulates its portfolio company matterr on receiving funding confirmation from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as part of the EFRE/JTF program “Produktives.NRW.” Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Mona Neubaur presented the funding approval on August 6 in Düsseldorf.
To help end the export of waste from industrialised nations—a practice that currently places a disproportionate burden on the world’s poorest countries—matterr has developed a globally patented solution capable of repeatedly transforming waste back into high-quality raw materials.
With this funding, matterr can accelerate the construction of its second plant, now on a small industrial scale, in North Rhine-Westphalia. The core technology is the depolymerization of PET under mild conditions. This allows mixed waste such as multi-layer packaging or mixed textile fabrics to be broken down into their primary components and fossil raw materials to be replaced on a large scale. By returning the monomer-based process to primary material quality, it enables molecular upcycling: Polyester textiles, which previously could only be recycled for low-quality applications, are now being used to create products of the highest quality – not only new textiles, but even packaging that is approved for food contact.
