#102 - Marco Bertone - Syntetica - Nylon's dirty secret

#102 - Marco Bertone - Syntetica - Nylon's dirty secret

Author: Hugo Rauch July 16, 2026 Duration: 58:02

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🌊 Can Fashion Break Free From Fossil Fuels?

How Syntetica plans to turn the textile industry’s most complex waste into a scalable source of new materials.

We’re joined by Marco Bertone, CEO and co-founder of Syntetica, a circular chemistry company building technology to recycle blended nylon waste.

Fresh off a $30 million funding round, Marco is working on a problem few companies have been able to solve: recovering high-quality nylon from garments made with multiple fibres, colours and coatings.

The scale of the challenge is difficult to ignore.

More than 100 billion garments are produced every year. Many are worn only seven to ten times, while roughly 92 billion garments end up in landfill or incineration.

In this episode, we unpack why the textile recycling system remains fundamentally broken — and what it takes to build a circular alternative that can compete with fossil-based materials on quality, performance and price.

In our conversation, we covered:

→ Why fast fashion created a waste problem that consumer behaviour alone will not solve

→ Why blended fabrics make textile recycling radically more difficult than recycling bottles

→ How Syntetica separates nylon 6 and nylon 6,6 from cotton, polyester, elastane and coatings

→ Why low-temperature, low-pressure chemistry could unlock competitive unit economics

→ What it takes to finance a first-of-a-kind chemical facility

→ How partnerships with Michelin, Lululemon, Uniqlo, MAS Holdings and other industry players help de-risk the path to scale

→ Why recycled materials must reach price parity with virgin nylon to become truly mainstream

Marco also shares what he had to learn moving from marketing into chemistry, industrial operations and project finance — and why the long-term ambition extends far beyond textiles.

The bigger goal: prove that a century of fossil-based production can be replaced by genuinely scalable circular technology.

✨ Leave a review and share the episode if this conversation challenged the way you think about growth, innovation, and sustainability.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newwavenewsletter.substack.com

Hugo Rauch hosts New Wave, a podcast that lives at the intersection of business ambition and scientific reality. This isn't about distant predictions or abstract science; it's a grounded exploration of the technologies and companies being built right now to address our environmental future. Each episode focuses on the practical journey, dissecting the models, the breakthroughs, and the hard decisions that define the climate tech landscape. You'll hear from founders, researchers, and investors who are actively shaping this space, getting into the specifics of what works, what doesn't, and why. The conversations move beyond hype to examine the tangible mechanics of creating viable solutions, from energy storage and sustainable materials to carbon removal and regenerative agriculture. It’s for anyone who thinks about the climate challenge not just as a crisis, but as a complex and urgent field of innovation. By tuning into this podcast, you gain a clearer understanding of the economic forces and scientific principles driving the next generation of environmental solutions. New Wave connects the dots between the lab, the boardroom, and the impact we need to see in the world, offering a sober yet optimistic look at where substantive progress is truly being made.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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