Global consumer brands debut enzymatically recycled bottles

France-based Carbios has partnered with several global consumer brands—L’Oréal, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe—to produce food-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles from enzymatically recycled plastics.

The brands have manufactured sample bottles based on Carbios’ enzymatic PET recycling technology for products, including Biotherm, Perrier, Pepsi Max and Orangina.

According to a news release from Carbios, the company has been researching and developing its technology for 10 years. The process supercharges an enzyme naturally occurring in compost that normally breaks down leaf membranes of dead plants. By adding the enzyme, Carbios says it has fine-tuned the technology and optimized the enzyme to break down any kind of PET, regardless of color or complexity, into its building blocks, which can then be turned into like-new, virgin-quality plastic.

L’Oréal, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe along with their respective brands plan to work to scale the use of Carbios’ technology to help meet the global demand for sustainable packaging solutions. Carbios reports that its patented enzymatic PET recycling process enables a variety of PET plastics to be recycled into virgin-quality food-grade recycled PET (rPET). Carbios says its technology can break down 97 percent of the PET in 16 hours.

Additionally, Carbios says it plans to break ground on a demonstration plant in September before launching a 40,000-ton-capacity industrial facility by 2025.

“In a world first, we have created food-grade clear bottles from enzymatically recycled colored and complex plastic with identical properties to virgin PET, and in partnership with the consortium, we have proved the viability of the technology with the world’s leading brands,” says Jean Claude Lumaret, CEO of Carbios. “This is a truly transformational innovation that could finally fully close the loop on PET plastic supply globally so that it never becomes waste.”

Jacques Playe, L’Oréal’s global head of packaging and product development, says his company has been working with Carbios since 2017 to develop a bottle made from PET derived from enzymatic recycling technology.

“It is very exciting to see that the quality of the prototype bottles made from colored recycled PET materials is virtually identical to clear virgin PET,” says Jean-Francois Briois, head of packaging material science and environmental sustainability at Nestlé Waters. “When we reach industrial scale, this enzymatic recycling technology will enable us to produce high-quality rPET bottles and help Nestlé Waters in our journey to boost the circular economy and reduce the use of virgin plastics.”

Carbios says it plans to license its technology to PET manufacturers worldwide, accelerating the global adoption of enzymatic recycling for all kinds of PET-based products.