Carbios and Tomra Partner to Scale Polyester’s Circularity

French biotech firm Carbios has teamed with recycling tech venture Tomra Textiles in an attempt to scale the circularity of polyester textiles.

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The duo signed an agreement to establish a new textile waste collection, sorting and preparation stream in Northern Europe. The collected material—prepared via Tomra’s automated sensor-based sorting technology —will be sent to the first commercial Carbios plant in Longlaville, France, which is currently under construction and expected to be operational by 2025.

Then, through the Puma partner’s enzymatic depolymerization technology, it will be converted back to monomers to be used to produce recycled polyester (r-PET) fiber. This biorecycling technology breaks down polyester fibers into their basic components using enzymes, which are then used to make recycled PET materials—including fibers for the textile industry.

“Carbios is taking the lead in forming an efficient value chain for textile circularity and actively engages with global industry leaders, such as Tomra, to shape the future of sustainable textiles,” said Emmanuel Ladent , CEO of Carbios.

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Under this partnership agreement, Tomra Textiles—part of Tomra Horizon, the venture arm set up by Tomra Group to explore new adjacent business opportunities and alternative business models—said it will explore specific, tangible measures to enable the preparation of post-consumer polyester waste for biorecycling per Carbios’ specifications.

In doing so, the duo will redirect the “challenging PET fraction” of polyester textile waste toward biorecycling, underscoring a mutual dedication to finding recycling solutions for a circular economy . Ideally, this will address gaps in the value chain while growing textile-to-textile recycling from its current rate of 1 percent, according to research from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation .

“The textile industry has been optimized for cost and efficiency for centuries. Closing the gap means scaling all the elements of a circular value chain—from collection to sorting to recycling technologies,” said Vibeke Krohn, head of Tomra Textiles. “Future recycling solutions depend on reliable access to feedstock. Through the collaboration with Carbios, we hope to stimulate further investments needed to scale textile circularity .”

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