Changing mindsets

Penetrating a traditional industry such as road construction is not easy, says Oh, whose family has been in this business for the past four decades. But in 2018, China’s ban on the import of plastic waste from other countries sent the world into chaos—and got Oh thinking.

“I got curious about what’s going to happen next because it wasn’t just a crisis for Singapore (the country exports most of its plastic waste to buyers overseas, including China), but for every developed country in the world,” she recalls. “You can also imagine how these countries went looking for alternative places to dump their trash—and this was Southeast Asia.”

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For Oh, there was no better time for Singapore to develop its recycling and waste management capabilities, and this, instead of a ban on plastics, became Magorium’s mission upon its establishment in 2019.

“I came into the industry not to see how we can pave greener roads, but how we can better manage our waste,” says Oh, who placed her focus on finding a way to recycle contaminated plastics, which have often been rendered unrecyclable.

Combining the engineering and research expertise from her family business with that of the material engineers she hired externally, she began working on developing a cost‑effective technology to process dirty plastics.

Gaining recognition and traction

In 2020, interest in Magorium’s work picked up when it won the top prize at Nanyang Technological University’s IdeasInc competition. “That was an important turning point for us, as it gave us the validation we had been seeking and the credibility we needed in a sector such as infrastructure material,” says Oh. Magorium has since also received support from HSBC, DBS Foundation and Enterprise Singapore.

A year later, the startup paved its first road for a factory owner who was renovating his property. He was not its first commercial client, but rather, an opportunity Oh and her team chanced upon when they were driving around town sharing about their services with anyone who would listen.

Today, Magorium processes 2,000 to 3,000 kilograms of plastics a day, up from a mere 100 kilograms when it first started. The quality and durability of its NewBitumen are also comparable to traditional bitumen.

Apart from working with pharmaceutical companies and local health institutions, the startup is doing research in the UK on alternative waste, such as food and paper, that can be converted into NewBitumen.

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