Plastic Waste Startup Circular11 Raises $2.9M for Building Materials

Jan de Vries · 2026-06-01

A UK-based startup is turning one of the world's biggest environmental problems into a solution for the construction industry. Circular11, a company based in Dorset, England, just raised $2.9 million (converted from EUR 2.7 million) in equity funding. The money will help them bring their manufacturing technology to market and scale up production of building materials made from low-grade plastic waste. ### The Funding Round The investment was led by Vectr7 Investment Partners, a climate impact investor. The FSE Group co-led the round, contributing about $790,000 from the British Business Bank's South West Investment Fund. Other investors, including the FSE Investor Network and Oxford Innovation Network, also joined in. Plus, the company received an InnovateUK grant. Circular11 plans to recycle roughly 22 million pounds of low-quality plastic over the next two years. That's a massive amount of waste that would otherwise end up in landfills or incinerators. ### Why This Matters Here's the problem: most plastics can't be recycled effectively because they're too mixed or contaminated. Recyclers can't separate them back to their original purity levels, making them useless for normal manufacturing. Circular11's proprietary technology adapts to this variation, allowing their production lines to handle all that messy, low-grade plastic. Benjamin Gibbons, CEO of Circular11, put it this way: "We believe that every tonne of plastic that gets incinerated is a missed opportunity to deliver low-carbon materials to a construction sector that desperately needs affordable and long-lasting assets." ### The Bigger Picture The timber market is under serious pressure. Demand for timber is expected to outstrip supply threefold over the next few decades. On top of that, traditional timber preservatives are being banned, which shortens the lifespan of wood products. That creates a huge opportunity for alternatives. Lumber composites from recycled plastic offer longer lifespans and lower maintenance costs. They also divert plastic from incineration and reduce the carbon footprint of construction projects. It's a win-win. ### How It Works Circular11 uses a three-step process: - **Collection**: They gather problem plastics directly from companies and communities, or work with sorting facilities that have large volumes of plastic that can't be separated or resold. They measure how much plastic would have gone to incineration or landfill. - **Shredding and Analysis**: The material is shredded down, and a chemical profile is created. That data feeds into machine learning algorithms that figure out the optimal formulation for each waste stream. Then, the material goes through in-house strength testing to ensure quality. - **Extrusion**: Finally, they use a process called extrusion to create plastic lumber, which is then made into finished products like fencing, furniture, and landscaping materials. A digital operating system tracks which plastic streams end up in each product, along with the carbon used and diverted during production. ### The Founders' Story Circular11 was founded in 2021 by Benjamin Gibbons and Connor Winter. The idea came after they worked on a waste management project in Nepal, where they saw firsthand how waste burning affected the families they lived with. That experience drove them to find a better way to handle plastic waste. In 2023, the company raised about $630,000 to set up a full-scale recycling and manufacturing facility in Dorset. They also developed that machine learning approach to handle low-grade waste streams. ### What's Next "The supply side constraints within the timber markets means the construction and manufacturing industries need sustainable alternatives," said Dominic Wilson, founder of Vectr7 Investment Partners. "Circular11 is addressing that critical need head on and we are excited about the next stage of their growth." With this new funding, Circular11 is poised to scale up and make a real dent in the plastic waste problem. It's a reminder that sometimes the best solutions come from looking at a problem from a completely different angle.