AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – With over 460 million tonnes of virgin plastic produced globally each year, more than half ends up choking oceans or buried in landfills. On Auckland’s North Shore, deep tech startup NILO is tackling this environmental catastrophe head-on by rewriting the chemical rules of upcycling. The team has engineered a proprietary process that functionalises hard-to-recycle plastic waste, altering its molecular properties to convert discarded polymers into high-performance industrial adhesives.
Spearheaded by Chief Executive Mike Maunsell, a former infrastructure programme executive, alongside co-founders Tim Williams and Neville Jones, NILO targets the global manufactured wood panel sector. For decades, the production of particleboard, medium-density fibreboard, and oriented strand board has relied on petroleum-based urea formaldehyde resins. This dependency leaves manufacturers exposed to massive supply chain shocks, highlighted by recent geopolitical turbulence that drove urea prices up by 100 percent. By replacing volatile fossil-fuel inputs with locally sourced plastic waste, NILO offers a domestic insurance policy that simultaneously eliminates toxic formaldehyde emissions from building products.
The technology recently achieved independent validation at a testing facility in Dresden, Germany, matching the structural performance of traditional market incumbents. This breakthrough caught the attention of retail giant Inter IKEA, which acquired a minority stake and a board seat, opening doors to major European manufacturing operations in Poland and Slovakia. NILO has also secured plastic credit certification, allowing multinational brands to offset their plastic footprints while subsidising NILO’s raw material pre-processing costs.
Despite high-profile backing and international patents granted in the United States and Australia, Maunsell maintains a pragmatic view on commercial adoption. “People are genuinely looking for environmentally responsible options, but you cannot rely on green sympathy alone,” Maunsell explains. “If you expect customers to pay a premium just because a product is sustainable, you will always remain a niche player. To achieve true global scale and genuinely solve the world’s plastic waste crisis, you must deliver a product that matches the incumbent on price, excels in performance, and happens to be green.”
NILO is now shifting focus from laboratory testing to global commercialisation. By leveraging a licensed partner model, the Kiwi team aims to scale its deep tech solution across international markets, proving that sustainable innovation and commercial performance can seamlessly coexist.
