Rethinking Plastic Recycling with Toni Kienberger
Questions in this interview
Toni Kienberger founded Ocean Material in 2020 to develop circular material solutions for plastic waste. In this interview with freelance journalist Markus Vögele, he explains why recyclability does not guarantee recycling, what he learned from coastal communities in Southeast Asia, and why difficult waste streams need an economic use.
Interview conducted on 4 November 2025. Edited English translation for Ocean Material Insights. The development plans and expectations below reflect that period. Performance, cost and environmental benefits are development potential, rather than verified industrial specifications.
The follow-up: In the 11 August 2026 interview on recyclable packaging and the circular economy, Toni explains the industrial development work still ahead and why the original machine schedule changed.
How big is the plastic problem?
Toni Kienberger: We have been talking about recycling for more than 30 years, yet plastic pollution continues to grow. The OECD’s global assessment recorded 353 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2019, of which only around nine per cent was ultimately recycled.
Many waste streams are too mixed or too expensive to process within the existing system. That system is optimised for relatively clean, straightforward fractions, rather than the full volume of waste.
There is a misunderstanding we urgently need to correct: recyclable does not mean recycled. A label on a supermarket package can suggest that the problem has been solved. But if recycling does not make economic sense, that package can still end up in an incinerator, a landfill or the environment.
Is recycling more appearance than substance?
Toni: Recycling matters, and we need more of it. Our recycling partners do excellent work. But mixed, contaminated and complex streams are often difficult to process economically.
For decades, recycling was presented as a solution that was easy to communicate politically and compatible with continued consumption. This created the impression that we had the problem under control, even though we had mainly addressed its easier parts.
The problem is not that recycling does not work. It is that we expected it to solve everything.
Why is it so difficult to address the underlying problem?
Toni: Economic, political and social interests often point in the same direction: growth. Businesses are measured through economic output, politicians face the next election, and we have lived in a culture of consumption for decades.
Many of today’s decision-makers were trained to treat growth as the central measure of success. That naturally directs attention towards solutions that do not challenge consumption. Recycling fitted that narrative: it promised progress without confronting prevention, reduction or honest product design.
Circularity begins with design, rather than with waste.
Should consumers take more responsibility by buying recycled products?
Toni: I do not think we can solve the problem at the consumer level alone. People want sustainability, but they also want convenience, functionality and a fair price. Especially in difficult economic times, the willingness to pay more decreases. That is understandable.
Products made with recycled materials have to be good, convenient and competitively priced. They need to succeed because they are a compelling choice, rather than because people feel guilty.
What prompted you to take action on plastic waste?
Toni: I grew up south of Munich, far from the sea, with a strong love of nature. I discovered diving and surfing early, initially in mountain lakes and rivers. Water never really let go of me.
The turning point came later. I lived in Hong Kong for almost 15 years and travelled frequently through Southeast Asia, visiting coasts, villages and rivers. There, the intensity of the plastic problem is difficult to imagine from Europe: beaches with rubbish washing ashore every day, rivers carrying packaging like conveyor belts, and people trying to earn an income from the waste they can sell.
I started organising cleanups. They are important for awareness, but I realised that removing waste does not resolve the system producing it. The next day, the beach could be full again. And the materials with no market value were still being left behind. That stayed with me.
How did that observation lead to Ocean Material?
Toni: An informal waste picker will collect a PET bottle if someone pays for it. A multilayer package or a plastic bag can be left behind because there is no buyer. Without an economic incentive, those streams continue to be ignored or end up in rivers and the sea.
I founded Ocean Material to turn materials from the maritime environment into valuable resources for brands. But I came to understand that this still mainly reached the more valuable part of plastic waste. The difficult remainder was still a problem.
I began working with engineers and research partners to look for other routes: solutions that could make environmental sense and also work economically. Only then can they scale.
You are working with MeSentia AG and Inspire AG on a new technology. How does it work?
Toni: We are developing a route for suitable mixed plastic streams that existing recycling systems struggle to handle economically. These can include multilayer packaging, contaminated films and textile mixtures, depending on their composition.
The aim is to use those streams more directly, with less sorting and cleaning and without first producing a conventional recycled granulate. We want to reduce the processing steps that make difficult streams expensive.
The resulting material is a lightweight fibre composite intended for structural applications. Pallets are our first application. The development aims include lower weight, lower processing costs and reduced energy use and emissions. Those benefits need to be demonstrated under industrial conditions and against clearly defined alternatives.
We are also investigating reprocessing products at the end of their useful life through the same process route. That has to be assessed together with material quality and losses over repeated cycles.
If the most difficult material has no economic use, it will continue to be left behind. That is the gap we want to address.
Does that sound too good to be true?
Toni: I asked myself that too. We spent two years testing, rejecting ideas, building prototypes, loading them, measuring them and developing them further before talking about the technology.
And this is a joint development effort. It would not exist without the engineers at MeSentia AG and the researchers at Inspire AG.
Why start with pallets?
Toni: Pallets are a useful starting point from both an environmental and an economic perspective. They are used throughout industrial supply chains, with clear requirements for weight, load capacity and stability.
Our fibre composite approach is intended to meet those needs while giving difficult waste streams a useful application. The opportunity is to turn material that currently has few buyers into a product with an established industrial purpose.
Pallets are not glamorous, but they can be a significant lever.
Where would the plastic for those pallets come from?
Toni: We focus on waste streams that push the current system to its limits and do not have a stable economic recovery route. These include industrial waste and material collected near coasts and rivers. The aim is to address the problem where existing routes struggle.
When will the first machine be ready?
Toni: We are preparing for industrialisation and the construction of the first industrial machine. At the time of this interview, our target is mid-2026. The schedule is ambitious.
Historical context: this was the target on 4 November 2025. The 11 August 2026 follow-up explains that the schedule was not achieved and that no new fixed commissioning date had been set.
Could the technology make products other than pallets?
Toni: Yes. The pallet is the starting point. Potential future applications include building components, noise barriers and modular systems. Each application would need its own development and validation.
How are you financing the project?
Toni: So far, through a combination of strategic partners, private funds and funding programmes. We are preparing a first financing round for industrialisation.
Is there already interest from potential users?
Toni: Yes, particularly from recyclers in Southeast Asia and Europe that currently pay disposal costs for these difficult fractions. The prospect of turning a cost into a useful product is attractive. That interest is an encouraging starting point.
European recycling plants have been closing. Could your technology help?
Toni: It can be one component of a broader solution. We need reuse and reduction, as well as recycling routes for difficult material. If we cannot make those streams economically useful, discussions about circularity will leave a substantial gap.
Where is action most urgently needed?
Toni: Europe talks a great deal about the circular economy, but recycling infrastructure is under economic pressure. High energy and labour costs, cheap virgin material and insufficient demand all play a role.
If recycled material costs more and creates quality concerns, industry may choose the cheaper alternative. Recycling works more readily where recovering material is economically attractive. We need to address that business case for plastics too.
Can Europe achieve its circular economy ambitions?
Toni: The ambition is achievable if regulation is consistent and its effect is not weakened by too many exceptions. Industry participation is part of the political process, but the final rules have to work in practice.
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation is a step in the right direction. What matters is that circularity becomes measurable and that businesses developing useful solutions can benefit.
Who is responsible for making that happen?
Toni: Responsibility is shared. Policymakers need to create conditions in which circularity makes economic sense. Virgin plastic is often cheaper and more consistent than recycled material. As long as that remains the case, circular approaches face a competitive disadvantage.
Extended producer responsibility can help if the money supports collection, take-back and recycling where those systems are needed. It should reward innovation and product design that enables real recovery.
Circularity must also work locally. Exporting material labelled recyclable does not prove that it will actually be recycled abroad. We need local value creation: jobs, innovation and pride.
What keeps you motivated when progress is frustrating?
Toni: At first, I simply did not want to keep watching the ocean I love become more polluted. Then I realised that my business background, my interests and my professional experience were coming together in this work. That clarity has sustained me.
It can be frustrating. But complaining does not create change. You have to keep going.
You also invest time in education. What does that involve?
Toni: We focus on places where recycling infrastructure is limited and awareness can make a difference. By the time of this interview, we had carried out almost 600 workshops, free to participants and made possible by partners and supporters.
The aim is to create knowledge and a sense of ownership: people can be part of the solution.
In 2025, we launched the Circular Roadshow, a mobile classroom showing children and young people how plastic pollution develops and how material loops can be built. The first programme runs in the Philippines, in affected communities.
Technology changes structures. Education changes attitudes. We need both.
Where do you see the innovation going?
Toni: I see it as part of a system that enables people to build their own material loops. We are starting with pallets, but other applications could follow in construction, logistics, furniture and modular systems.
The long-term ambition is a model that works locally, is economically viable and helps regions address their own waste problems instead of exporting them.
About the conversation
Toni Kienberger is founder and CEO of Ocean Material. His work focuses on circular material solutions for maritime and difficult plastic waste streams. Markus Vögele is a freelance journalist and conducted this interview on 4 November 2025. Ocean Material prepared the edited English translation.
Continue exploring
- Read the August 2026 follow-up on recyclable packaging and recycling economics.
- Explore Ocean Material’s recycling technology development and material portfolio.
- Learn about the Circular Roadshow and education programmes.
Background source
The global waste and recycling figures refer to 2019, as reported in the OECD Global Plastics Outlook.
