Startup Spotlight: Magorium (SG) & the Future of Plastic Roads
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Singapore's relationship with plastic waste is fraught. In 2022, the nation produced 1,001 tonnes of plastic waste, but successfully recycled a mere 6% (57 tonnes), relying heavily on energy-intensive incineration for the rest [7].
Magorium, a Singapore-based deep-tech startup led by CEO Oh Chu Xian, is aggressively disrupting this linear pipeline by reverse-engineering unrecyclable, contaminated plastic waste into NEWBitumen, a sustainable road construction material [7][8].
The Pyrolysis Process and Byproducts
Traditional bitumen requires mining roughly 300 kg of materials from the earth for every square meter of road paved [7]. Magorium sidesteps this extraction via thermal depolymerization (pyrolysis).
Unrecyclable plastics are shredded and fed into a reactor, where their long polymer chains are chemically fractured.
|
Depolymerization Yield Output |
Percentage [7] |
Circular Application |
|---|---|---|
|
NEWBitumen |
30% - 50% |
Directly replaces traditional fossil-fuel-derived bitumen for paving roads. |
|
Syngas |
~40% |
A mix of hydrogen and carbon monoxide diverted back to heat the reactor, creating a closed-loop energy cycle. |
|
Biochar |
~10% - 20% |
Derived from organic contaminants, currently being trialed as a supplementary construction material. |
With preliminary estimates pointing to a 300 kg reduction in CO2 per tonne of NEWBitumen produced compared to traditional methods, Magorium has already successfully diverted over 100 tonnes of plastic waste from incineration [7].
They've moved from their initial low-risk pilot in Tuas to paving infrastructure for major entities like Sentosa Development Corporation, CapitaLand, and Keppel, proving that hyper-local, deep-tech interventions are the key to building physically circular cities.
[7] Oh Chu Xian's Startup is Using Your Plastic Waste to Pave Roads - DesignSingapore Council
[8] Magorium - Sustainable solutions