About us - Imeko

We are the experts behind the science of cigarette waste recycling

Our history

It all started with a question:

There are so many cigarette butts polluting the world, will it be possible to do something with them and reduce their impact?

2017

Germán and Valery, two chemists with a commitment to science and the environment, who by their training knew that cigarette butts are made of a plastic called cellulose acetate, entered the laboratory to research and develop a technology that allow to solve the problem and recover this material.
After extensive research work, they reached the Eureka moment: They achieved to develop a completely sustainable chemical process that eliminates the toxicity of cigarette butts and recovers the highly valuable cellulose acetate.

At the end of that same year, Jennifer, from the business world and passionate about sustainability, was invited to become part of the founding team, giving life to Imeko.

The team was not complete until Felipe arrived, becoming part of the process from an industrial perspective.

IMEKO is a young team, with a passion for science and wanting to improve the world by recovering

one cigarette butt at a time.

Mission

We set out to become solvers of the environmental problems caused by cigarette butts using our scientific knowledge. We developed a process based on chemistry, and we turned that idea into a real solution, managing to recover the plastic from the filter of the cigarette butts, completely free of toxic components, and transforming it into a new sustainable raw material for its reincorporation in the economy of plastic materials.

They have believed in us

Partners