Carbios produces its first PET bottles

French company Carbios says it has produced the first polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles made completely with purified terephthalic acid (rPTA) that is produced through the company’s enzymatic bio-recycling process.

Alain Marty, chief scientific officer at Carbios, says, “We have successfully developed the first biological process with which all kinds of PET plastic waste can be broken down into its original components and reused to produce virgin plastic products for applications such as PET bottles. This new step shows the strong potential of Carbios’ enzymatic technology and provides a breakthrough solution to help solve society’s growing waste problem.”

Previously, the company said it had demonstrated that its proprietary bio-recycling technology, based on the use of bio-engineered enzymes, had the ability to turn PET scrap back into its original components at a rate of 97 percent in only 16 hours. Carbios also had demonstrated that virgin PET could be made with rPTA via its proprietary bio-recycling process, which uses all kinds of postconsumer PET plastic bottles (clear, colored, opaque, complex).

By demonstrating that its rPTA can be used to produce PET bottles that match brand and customer requirements, Carbios says “this technology proves to be a potential game-changer in the transition towards a circular economy that will benefit the environment and future generations.”

Jean-Claude Lumaret, CEO of Carbios, says, “The plastics industry faces fundamental challenges related to sustainability. Our technology, based on a circular model, reuses resources rather than consuming them. This new milestone takes us one step closer to bringing our technology to the market. With the construction of our demonstration plant to start later this year, we're aiming to engage the whole plastics industry in a transition towards a circular economy and take a leadership role as a global license provider for the bio-recycling of PET plastics and fibers.”