When most people hear the word chemistry, they probably picture a laboratory: white coats, beakers and experiments taking place far from the everyday economy. Green chemistry tells a very different story. Its impact is increasingly being felt well beyond the laboratory — in mines, forests, farms, factories, consumer products, batteries and advanced materials.
That is one of the reasons green chemistry matters so much to Canada. It isn’t simply an emerging industry. It is a set of technologies and processes that can make many of the industries Canada already has more competitive, productive and sustainable. Canadian companies are already showing what that can look like.
From Canada’s forests to advanced materials
For more than a century, Canada’s forests have supplied lumber, pulp and paper to the world. Green chemistry is creating opportunities to get considerably more value from that resource.
Montréal-based Anomera, which grew out of research at McGill University, has developed a patented process that transforms cellulose from sustainably sourced forest resources into advanced materials. Its cellulose-based products are being used across applications including cosmetics and personal care, coatings, adhesives and bioplastics. The company now operates a 25,000-square-foot production facility in Témiscaming, Québec, with annual production capacity of more than 250 tonnes.
Another example is Vancouver-based Plantee Bioplastics has developed wood-fibre-based thermal insulation that converts locally sourced forestry residues into a lower-carbon alternative to conventional insulation for applications including remote modular bases, modular construction and affordable housing. In partnership with Yinka Dene Economic Development Limited Partnership (YLP), Plantee is advancing pilot-scale production in Vancouver to demonstrate the technology and support its commercialization. The company is now planning expansion into Eganville, Ontario, in partnership with Killaloe Wood Products and Burns Lake, British Columbia in partnership with YLP, through regional micro-production facilities capable of producing up to 1,000 tonnes annually using locally available forest feedstocks
The starting point is a resource Canada has in abundance. The end product is a highly engineered material that can replace or reduce the use of substances such as microplastics, silica and petrochemical-based materials while also improving product performance.
That is more than finding a greener use for wood. It is value-added manufacturing built on a Canadian natural resource.
Recovering critical materials from products we already have
Canada’s critical minerals opportunity isn’t limited to what we can extract from the ground.
Kingston-based Cyclic Materials is building a circular supply chain for rare earth elements and other critical materials used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics and advanced manufacturing. The company’s proprietary processes recover valuable materials from end-of-life products containing rare earth magnets and return them to the supply chain.
In 2024, Cyclic opened its Hub100 commercial demonstration facility in Kingston. Using the company’s REEPure™ hydrometallurgical technology, the facility became the first in North America to produce recycled Mixed Rare Earth Oxide. It has the capacity to process 100 tonnes of magnetic material annually.
The implications go well beyond recycling. Rare earth elements are strategically important to electrification and advanced manufacturing. Recovering them domestically can create another source of supply while capturing value from products that have already reached the end of their first useful life.
It also shows how chemistry can connect industries we often discuss separately: critical minerals, recycling, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and transportation.
Turning food waste into everyday chemistry
Green chemistry can also change the ingredients used in products we encounter every day.
Surfactants are essential ingredients in products such as detergents, soaps and industrial cleaners. Many conventional surfactants rely on petroleum or virgin agricultural feedstocks such as palm oil.
Québec-based Dispersa is taking a different approach: using food waste as its raw material. Through its patented BioEterna™ fermentation process, Dispersa transforms sugars and oils recovered from local food waste into biosurfactants — biodegradable ingredients that can perform the same basic functions as conventional surfactants.
Its flagship ingredient, PuraSurf M™, is made entirely from food waste and is designed to provide cleaning, foaming and emulsifying performance without relying on petroleum or palm-derived feedstocks.
This is where green chemistry and the circular economy come together. A material that would otherwise be discarded becomes the feedstock for a higher-value chemical ingredient.
Waste hasn’t simply been diverted. It has become a resource.
One technology platform, many industries
Anomera, Plantee Bioplastics, Cyclic Materials and Dispersa are very different companies solving very different problems. That is precisely the point. Green chemistry doesn’t fit neatly into a single sector.
It can help Canada’s forestry industry create higher-value materials. It can recover strategically important minerals from end-of-life products. It can transform food waste into ingredients used in everyday products.
And these are only three examples. Applications extend across mining, agriculture, forestry, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, batteries, consumer products and advanced materials.
For Canada, that breadth creates a significant economic opportunity. We already have many of the industries that can benefit from these technologies. We have abundant natural resources, strong research capabilities and entrepreneurs developing new chemistry, materials and processes. But the opportunity isn’t simply to make existing industries cleaner. It is to create more value from the resources and capabilities Canada already has.
A forest resource can become an advanced material. An end-of-life magnet can become a new source of critical minerals. Food waste can become a high-performance chemical ingredient.
Green chemistry can help Canada get more value from the economy we already have — while helping build the industries we want for the future. But developing the chemistry is only the beginning.
If Canada wants to capture the jobs, manufacturing, exports and economic value these innovations can create, promising technologies also have to make the difficult transition from the laboratory to commercial production.
Canada has no shortage of good ideas. The bigger challenge is scaling them.And that is where we will go next.
Next: Why Scale-Up Matters More Than Discovery
This article is part of a series exploring Canada’s opportunity in green chemistry ahead of RXN HUB’s Innovation Summit in Kingston on September 23, 2026.
Learn more and register for RXN HUB’s 2026 Innovation Summit here.