The BioDesign Newsletter

Issue #019

CARBIOS And FCC Progress Transition Towards A Circular Economy 

CARBIOS is a France-based biotechnology company that develops enzymes that close the loop on end-of-life plastics and textiles. Their solution breaks down PET plastic and textile waste, without using harmful solvents, recycling it into new high-quality products. 

A Letter Of Intent was signed by the FCC Environment UK (FCC), the UK’s leading waste management company, and CARBIOS.  This agreement will lead to the construction of an enzymatic recycling facility in the UK, where the potential of the licensed technology will be studied. This news comes a few months after the announcement of CARBIOS’ first commercial PET biorecycling plant, in France. 

Drivers For Circular Solutions

This will support the FCC in fulfilling its commitment to research innovative solutions and encourage the transition to a circular economy. With record production and less than 10% being recycled, plastic pollution is a mammoth environmental issue. Voluntary commitments are not the only drivers for such partnerships, sustainable legislation deadlines are looming propelling industries to consider sustainable solutions. 

Beyond the EU’s Ecodesign regulation, which recently came into force, the EU Packaging Regulation includes targets such as a minimum recycled content in plastic packaging by 2030 which will increase in 2040, in addition to the mandate that all packaging must be designed for recycling by 2030. In the UK, The Plastic Packaging Tax is a levy on plastic packaging components that contain less than 30% of recycled plastic. 

What is BioRecycling? 

With the pressure on, to integrate recycled solutions, more bio-recycling solutions are making headlines. Biorecycling uses biological processes to break down plastic waste into its original components. These biological processes are facilitated by enzymes, nature’s catalysts, that can break plastics down and reassemble them like Lego bricks, to make a high-quality product from waste to reenter the supply chain. 

CARBIOS Offers Partners A Solution To Plastic Waste  

Through the collaboration, the FCC is eager to understand CARBIOS’ PET biorecycling technology and its potential for reducing energy consumption and the circularity of PET-based products.  Steve Longdon (CEO, FCC Environment UK) spoke to this stating, “ To deliver the challenges set out in the Environment Act, we need to think creatively about how we recover the value in materials that society no longer wants, and textiles, as we know from our work promoting a reuse culture, pose a huge challenge to our sector. We are keen to explore with CARBIOS what contribution this technology could make to the UK circular economy and to examine further its place in the UK waste hierarchy from a firm evidence base.”

This collaboration is the latest of CARBIOS’ partnerships, among which include:

• PET bottles made from enzymatic recycling for L’OCCITANE; 

• Scaling the circular model of polyester textiles  with TOMRA Textiles and; 

• Discussions for a long-term partnership with the Zhink Group to build industrial PET biorecycling facilities in China. 

The partnership with the FCC highlights the position CARBIOS can fill in the supply chain. “By creating value from waste, CARBIOS’ PET biorecycling technology is generating significant interest from waste management companies, proving that CARBIOS’ solution is relevant to both PET producers and waste management companies”, stated Emmanuel Ladent, (CEO, CARBIOS). ” For CARBIOS, partnering with FCC means access to feedstock at the source through its established collection systems, enhancing the efficiency and impact of our sustainable waste solution. I’m confident that the combination of our complementary areas of expertise will benefit both our companies and the acceleration of a circular economy.”

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