Zero Plastic Origin Story

How it all started....

Zero Plastic was started by Clinton Switzer in the summer of 2023 after Switzer graduated with a MS in Materials Science and Engineering from Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Having spent his graduate school career focused on recycling plastics, Switzer responded to a call for proposals from the US Army's SBIR program to help develop technology to improve the sustainability of the Army's building materials. Halfway through a summer internship at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland OH, Switzer was notified that Zero Plastic's proposal had been selected for funding and a contract was on its way. Switzer returned to Tulsa at the end of the summer and started preparing for Zero Plastic's first project, designing a mobile plastic recycling facility that could be transported around the world and used to help turn waste plastic into new molded products or materials.