Samsara Eco has appointed Dr Lars Kissau as its first General Manager of Asia. Based in Singapore, he will lead the company’s expansion across Asia as Samsara Eco scales its operations and looks forward to opening its first commercial nylon 6,6 facility in 2028.
Samsara Eco
Dr Lars Kissau, General Manager, Asia, with Paul Riley, Founder and CEO, Samsara Eco
Kissau has spent the last two decades at BASF, where he helped lead business operations. Most recently, he led the company’s net zero accelerator, which helped with implementing and speeding up low-carbon and circular economy technologies.
“We're rapidly scaling to meet market demand for low-carbon, circular materials. We've just opened our first plant in regional Australia and have our eyes firmly set on our first nylon 6,6 plant in Asia,” said Paul Riley, CEO and Founder of Samsara Eco. “Lars brings unmatched expertise to help us scale rapidly, and places us at the centre of the plastics supply chain. We're transforming century-old economic models. Having the best team with deep expertise like Lars will help us rapidly accelerate our path to commercialisation.”
Only 10% of plastics are recycled, with less than 1% of textiles recycled into new textiles. Samsara Eco hopes its enzymatic recycling technology, EosEco, can change these numbers. Uses AI-crafted enzymes to recycle the unrecyclable, EosEco aims to keep more out of the landfill and in circulation.
The company is also preparing to open its first 20,000-tonne commercial nylon 6,6 plant in 2028. Kissau will lead on this build, the first of a fleet of international facilities using the company's EosEco technology. There is also a plan in place to build out the regional team to half a dozen over the next 12 months.
“Samsara Eco's technology is not a niche solution but one that can scale and create real-world change,” said Kissau. “Nylon and mixed plastics have historically been a challenge to recycle, which is why Samsara Eco's potential is so promising. The technology has the power to change the whole value chain of plastics, and with it, change industries.”
“I'm looking forward to building alongside this incredible team, who are all as passionate as I am to accelerate our technology to create a circular economy for plastics,” concluded Kissau.