French biotech company Carbios has partnered with recycled PET producer Indorama Ventures to construct a “first-of-a-kind” plant to manufacture bio-recycled PET. The €200m plastic recycling plant is set to be operational in 2025, with an annual PET waste processing capacity of 50,000 tons.
After its industrial demonstration plant that began operating in France last September, Carbios is scaling up its enzymatic plastic recycling technology. The biotech company has partnered with Thailand-headquartered Indorama Ventures to build the world’s first 100% bio-recycled PET plant, also in France.
Set to be operational in 2025 and located at Indorama Ventures’ PET production site in Longlaville, Meurthe-et-Moselle, the plant will be able to process 50,000 tons of PET waste annually, which is equivalent to 2 billion PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays.
“With this first medium-sized plant, we want to become the world reference for the Circular Economy of plastics and textiles. By engaging in such a partnership with Indorama Ventures, we confirm our commitment to pursue our initial industrial development in France. This plant will pave the way towards international commercial and industrial deployment,” Emmanuel Ladent, Chief Executive Officer of Carbios, said in a statement.
Around €200m is set to be invested in the facility; €150m for Carbios technology and €50m for infrastructure preparation. The French government and the Grand-Est Region are lined up to contribute to the investment, along with Indorama Ventures, which will also consider rolling out Carbios’ recycling process at other PET sites in future.
Carbios’ C-ZYME technology converts PET into its core monomers, which can then be used to produce “100% recycled and infinitely recyclable” PET.
The two parties say that scaling up the technology will meet the needs of both consumers and large consumer goods companies for more sustainable packaging, including Carbios’ partners and shareholders L’Oréal, L’Occitane, Michelin, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo, Suntory Beverage & Food Europe. Last year, L’Oréal’s Biotherm announced plans to debut an “infinitely recyclable” plastic bottle in 2025 thanks to Carbios’ enzymatic technology.
