France-based biotech company Carbios has announced an exclusive partnership with leading biological solutions company, Novozymes.
This agreement secures the production of Carbios’ proprietary PET-degrading enzymes at both a demonstration level and an industrial scale. The agreement also represents a critical step for Carbios in demonstrating the positive environmental impact of its technology and ensures it can provide sustainable solutions for the infinite recycling of PET-based bottles, packaging and textiles.
Novozymes
Fermentation tank at Novozymes' plant in Kalundborg, Denmark
Fermentation tank at Novozymes' plant in Kalundborg, Denmark
Carbios CEO Jean-Claude Lumaret said: “Many years ago we envisioned the great potential of enzymes to bring PET-based plastics and fibres into the circular economy. Following a first partnership on PLA biodegradation with Novozymes that began in January 2019, today’s agreement on PET recycling reinforces our collaboration. It also demonstrates the trust that the world’s largest provider of enzyme technologies has placed in Carbios. We are proud to share this common ambition to preserve the planet’s resources and to work together with Novozymes, to help build a more sustainable world.”
Jens Kolind, VP Household Care Global Marketing at Novozymes, added: “We are happy to expand our collaboration with Carbios where we work together on finding biological solutions to address the significant sustainability challenge of plastic pollution.”
Carbios has developed a biology-based solution which uses enzymes to break down widely used PET plastics and fibres. Unlike the limited recycling potential of mechanical processes, Carbios’ approach gives new value to plastic, saving post-consumer plastics from landfill, and transforming production and recycling.
This agreement with Novozymes, along with the support and vision of Carbios’ consumer brand Consortium, which includes L’Oréal, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe, brings the company’s patented solution one step closer to industrial and commercial reality.
Drawing on the company’s proprietary enhanced recycling technology and the extensive experience of its partners, Carbios will launch the construction of a demonstration plant for the recycling of PET-based plastics and polyester fibres in 2020. The first operations are expected to begin in 2021, prior to a large-scale industrial deployment.