Carbios is considering taking its textile waste recycling technology across the Channel.
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The French biotech firm and FCC Environment UK are exploring the idea of opening a UK-based plant using Carbios’ PET biorecycling licensed technology. Carbios and the waste management firm have signed a letter of intent (LOI) to jointly study the implementation of the Puma partner ’s enzymatic depolymerization technology —which deconstructs PET into its most basic components to then create virgin-like products—in the UK market.
According to the Paris-based green chemistry company, the collaboration represents an opportunity to expand its technology’s reach into new markets (namely by securing a foothold in the UK) while validating the relevancy of its solution of creating value from waste to both PET producers and waste management companies.
“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,” said Emmanuel Ladent , CEO of Carbios. I’m confident that the combination of our complementary areas of expertise will benefit both our companies, and the acceleration of a circular economy .”
Although recycling has “ plateaued ” in the UK despite the government’s attempts to support a circular economy, both companies said innovation and investment are necessary to achieve lasting environmental change.
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Thus, the FCC is “keen” to better understand the depolymerization process by seeking an evidence-based view on the advantages of using enzymes to treat hard-to-recycle PET. This includes lower energy consumption and better circularity of the polymers back into the PET production lines. This technology is “key” to supporting the FCC’s continuing goal of contributing to the circular economy by exploring new processes and technologies to produce recycled PET .
“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,” said Steve Longdon, FCC Environment UK’s CEO. “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.”
In addition to what is allegedly the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET recycling plant, currently under construction in Longlaville, France, the UK-based plant would process PET waste not currently recyclable via conventional technologies, including problematic fractions within textile waste such as polyester .
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