DÜSSELDORF/BERLIN – Newsaktuell – 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.
Credit: © MWIKE NRW / Bowinkelmann
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.
“This is a unique partnership,” says Wolfgang K. Hoever, founder of cooldown°earth. “A charitable foundation takes the lead, the state follows – and the result is infrastructure that turns hard-to-recycle waste into a circular GreenTech product. This is great news for climate protection and for our region as a business location.”
The funding commitment awarded to matterr is not only the first from this programme but also the
maximum possible grant amount of €30 million. The planned NRW facility is scheduled to start operations in 2027 with an annual capacity of 10,000 tonnes.
cooldown°earth is not the recipient of the funding, but an early investor and enabler. Any potential returns from its stake will, in accordance with its statutes, be reinvested in non-profit climate and environmental protection projects.
Background
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The State of NRW and the EU support strategic technologies under the
Produktives.NRW (EFRE/JTF 2021–2027) programme to ensure they remain in NRW/Europe. The first grants went to, among others,
matterr (“revolPET plant”) and
Greenlyte. Minister Neubaur highlighted the triple benefit for climate, jobs and innovation.
(Pressrelease NRW) -
matterr’s own statement details the funding amount, schedule and process; the plant will replace fossil-based PET feedstock with
primary-quality recycled material.
(Pressrelease matterr)
Hashtag: #cooldown°earth
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
