Biotech Pioneer Carbios to Build World’s First PET Recycling Plant
French biotechnology pioneer Carbios has been given the green light to build the world’s first PET biorecycling plant in partnership with Indorama Ventures. The facility will be built on a 13.7 acre slice of Indorama’s existing PET plant site acquired by Carbios for this purpose and will double the plant’s current capacity. Construction will begin by the end of this year and it will be operational by 2025, according to a statement from the Puma partner.
Located in Langlaville, France, the plant is an industrial-sized enzymatic recycling approach to PET waste. It will provide an alternative raw material to virgin fossil-based monomers, giving PET producers, chemical companies, waste management firms, public entities and brands assistance in meeting regulatory and sustainability requirements.
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The facility will be able to process 50,000 tons of post-consumer PET waste annually, and will generate 150 direct and indirect jobs locally. The equivalent of 2 billion colored PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET food trays, the waste is primarily not recyclable by mechanical means.
This brand of technology from Carbios has the ability to recycle and produce food-grade products, which makes it more flexible. It is located in France’s Grand-Est region at the border with Luxembourg and Germany, where the supply potential could reach 400,000 tons this year, and with improved collection possibly reach 500,000 tons by 2030.
Importantly, its location is near a waste supply, and is designed to maximize circularity with high-quality output, and minimal energy consumption. Optimizing water recycling is also part of the plan for future improvements.
Carbios already has an initial supply source with the winning recently of the CITEO contract for the biorecycling of multilayer food trays, set to begin in 2025. It is part of a consortium that includes Wellman (a subsidiary of Indorama Ventures), and Valorplast, and is slated to handle 30 percent of the volume proposed by CITEO, a circularity and recycling initiative.
Total investment in the plant is said to be 230 million euros (approximately $243.2 million), some 110 million euros ($116.3 million) of which will be put up by Indorama Ventures. An additional 30 million euros ($31.7 million) will come from the French government, 12.5 million euros ($13.2 million) from the Grand-Est regional government and some 78 million euros ($82.5 million) from Carbios.
Permits to build the plant were obtained through the standard approvals processes and include public polling about the environmental impact, energy consumption, landscape integration, traffic flows, etc. The request was submitted by Carbios in December 2022.
Carbios’ biorecycling demonstration plant, which it operates in partnership with Indorama Ventures, has been operational since 2021. It partners with high-profile food and beverage brands and beauty and apparel brands as L’Oreal, Patagonia, Puma, PVH Corp., Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage and Food Europe.
