Cecilia Featured In Forbes Article on Next-Generation Materials & Manufacturing
Cecilia Featured in Forbes: From Plastic Waste to Strategic Materials in a Circular Economy
January 28, 2026 — Cecilia was recently featured in a Forbes article exploring the growing shift in how industry is addressing the global plastic waste problem. The piece highlights a core reality driving Cecilia’s work: the scale and complexity of plastic waste far exceeds what traditional recycling systems can absorb. As Forbes notes, “the scale of this imbalance shows that recycling alone cannot absorb the volume, complexity, or material value embedded in modern plastic waste.”
Turning waste into performance materials
Forbes describes Cecilia as “making plastic waste more valuable than disposal,” with a focus on “converting industrial plastic waste into high-performance carbon materials, including carbon nanotubes, for use in aerospace, defense, electronics, and advanced manufacturing.” These applications matter because advanced carbon materials—especially carbon nanotubes—can unlock meaningful performance gains across next-generation products.
Importantly, the article emphasizes Cecilia’s approach as more than waste processing: “Rather than attempting to reprocess plastics into lower-grade outputs, Cecilia applies advanced process engineering to transform waste into materials with strategic industrial demand.” In this framing, “plastic waste becomes a domestic resource, rather than an environmental and health liability.”
Built on validated science, engineered for scale
The Forbes article links Cecilia’s foundation to U.S. DOE research, noting that “Cecilia’s technology builds on foundational microwave research conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, which demonstrated the feasibility of breaking down plastic into hydrogen and solid carbon.” Cecilia’s mission is to scale and commercialize that science—bringing process control and modular deployment to produce performance-ready carbon materials.
As the article puts it, “The challenge is no longer whether plastic can be chemically transformed, but whether it can be done reliably, economically, and at scalable and impactful volumes.” That lens is central to how Cecilia partners with customers.
National security and advanced manufacturing relevance
Forbes also underscores Cecilia’s work at the intersection of advanced materials and mission-critical applications, noting that the company is “a three-time NASA SBIR awardee” supporting efforts under the Moon to Mars initiative. The article connects closed-loop material systems in space to an Earth-based need for resilient supply chains, observing that “advanced materials are foundational to national security, clean energy systems, and resilient manufacturing supply chains.”
Read the full article in Forbes here.
