ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Synapse Orlando on Friday will bring together creators, innovators and entrepreneurs, celebrating the tech ecosystem in Central Florida. 

The event, held at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center, also will also be a zero-waste event, thanks to a first-time partnership with PureCycle Technologies.

“We’ve got a technology that is different, transformative,” said Dustin Olson, PureCycle’s chief manufacturing officer. “I don’t think there’s a single person in the world who likes to see trash in the ocean.”

A Procter & Gamble scientist’s solvent-based purification process is being harnessed by PureCycle to tackle the hardest-to-recycle plastic, polypropylene. 

The No. 5 plastic — identified by a triangle with the number 5 inside — is ubiquitous, found everywhere from containers to cups. Even car companies utilize that type of plastic to make things like bumpers, which allow vehicles to weigh less and thus be more economical.

But according to the American Chemistry Council, recycling of polypropylene — the most-used plastic — occurs at a rate of less than 1%. ​

“Because polypropylene is so versatile, there hasn’t been a good solution to the recycling problem,” Olson said. “We’re getting to this point in the world where we’ve got to do something to address this problem."

Olson, an engineer by trade, said the company hopes to provide a viable answer as it takes over a former 200,000-square-foot canning facility on East Maple Street in Winter Garden and transforms it into a sorting and repurposing facility.

One day, the warehouse — which still sits empty because of supply- chain disruptions — will be the hub for sorting and prepping plastics, from Tampa to Cocoa. 

Trucks will move the plastic to facilities in Georgia and Ohio to create a product that can be reused multiple times.

While moving plastics by trucks may not sound like the most sustainable solution, PureCycle Director of Global Expansion Ryan Chambers said that it makes sense. With massive consumption in Central Florida, four trucks that arrive full with any type of product will leave empty.

According to the American Chemistry Council, U.S. generated more than 35 million tons of plastics in 2018. Of that, 8% got recycled, and 27 million tons headed to landfills.

The bigger umbrella of sustainability has long been a top issue for Orlando city leaders. They have banned single-use plastics at city facilities and installed 100 new electric-vehicle charging stations citywide as part of its efforts.

While Friday’s Synapse puts a spotlight on the region’s technological advances, the partnership with PureCycle melds technology with sustainability.

“We have worked with Synapse, so all the plastic they have there, everything from food containers to signage, all No. 5 polypropylene plastic. Send it to our Ohio location to be purified and be reused again,” said Adrianna Sekula, PureCycle's chief of staff. “It’s helping an event in Orlando be zero waste. And it’s also a technology piece … So, we are in way a technology company. We’re the only ones able to do this with polypropylene plastic."

PureCycle is working to get operations rolling by 2022, per Olson. Then it will scale the process and scout spots in Japan and South Korea. 

It’s a lot of pressure for the new technology — and Winter Garden-headquartered company — to deliver on a promise to transform recycling. It’s why he moved his family from Shanghai, China.

But, perhaps addressing the long-standing issue of sustainability needs a new approach.

“I think if people just take a step back when they’re enjoying their weekends, out on the lake, on the river or the coast, that they think about what the effects would be on them if it was a mess. If it wasn’t recycled. And if there wasn’t trash pulling up on our shores,” Sekula said.

“If we’re not looking in our own backyard to take care of the problem here, how can we point the finger to look somewhere else?” Olson added.​