CARBIOS is the world’s only company to combine enzymology and plastics reducing the need for virgin petro-sourced plastic

“By forging unprecedented expertise-based partnerships, we lead the way in biorecycling and biodegradation technologies, reducing the need for virgin petro-sourced plastic, and ensuring that these materials can be recycled and returned to the production loop or composted and safely returned to earth. By scaling these innovations, we are committed to making a real-world impact—creating a world where both plastic and textile waste are no longer environmental threats, but valuable resources, contributing to a sustainable, circular future.”

-- Emmanuel Ladent, CEO of CARBIOS

Interview with Emmanuel Ladent, CEO of CARBIOS

By Suzanne Forcese

WT: Please introduce yourself to our viewers and the journey that brought you to CARBIOS.

Ladent: Prior to joining CARBIOS in 2021 I led the Automotive Global Brands division at Michelin. Throughout my career, I’ve worked in various automotive and mobility sectors across several continents including Asia and South America.

Having managed large-scale business operations internationally and significantly contributed to the growth of multi-billion-euro subsidiaries, I’m leveraging my business expertise to achieve CARBIOS’ ambition of becoming a leading technology provider in the recycling of PET by 2035, as well as developing and bringing to scale enzyme-based solutions for other types of plastic.

WT: Please give us an overview of CARBIOS.

Ladent: CARBIOS was founded in 2011 with the vision to create a sustainable, circular economy for plastic through biotechnology. At CARBIOS, we are proud to say that “we make the impossible possible”. Nature has not yet evolved to degrade plastic, this relatively new material. The CARBIOS teams have however identified and bio-engineered an enzyme to efficiently degrade PET, and another to accelerate the full biodegradation of PLA.

WT: Tell us about the Team talent and their contribution to the CARBIOS mission.

Ladent: The people who made this possible are highly skilled experts in enzymology, biotechnology, industrial processes and business, working together to tackle one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time—plastic waste pollution.

By forging unprecedented expertise-based partnerships, we lead the way in biorecycling and biodegradation technologies, reducing the need for virgin petro-sourced plastic, and ensuring that these materials can be recycled and returned to the production loop or composted and safely returned to earth. By scaling these innovations, we are committed to making a real-world impact—creating a world where both plastic and textile waste are no longer environmental threats, but valuable resources, contributing to a sustainable, circular future.

WT: Can you give us a brief overview of the milestones accomplished since CARBIOS was founded?

Ladent: Since its founding in 2011, CARBIOS has accomplished several groundbreaking milestones.

In 2020, CARBIOS made a significant scientific breakthrough that was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. The article highlighted our innovative enzyme technology capable of breaking down PET plastic into its original monomers, marking a major step forward in sustainable recycling.

In 2019, a Packaging Consortium was launched. Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe joined the Consortium founded by CARBIOS and L’Oréal to support the world’s first enzymatic technology for the recycling of plastic. This consortium was created to accelerate the development, industrialization and commercialization of our enzymatic biorecycling technology for PET packaging.

In collaboration with our packaging consortium partners, in 2021, we produced the world’s first plastic bottles made from 100% enzymatically recycled PET waste. Each Consortium member successfully manufactured sample bottles for some of their leading products including: Biotherm®, Perrier®, Pepsi Max®** and Orangina®.

CARBIOS inaugurated its industrial demonstration plant in Clermont-Ferrand, France, in 2021. This facility showcases the scalability of our biorecycling technology for both PET plastic and polyester fibers, validating its potential for industrial application.

To extend our innovation to the textile industry, in 2022 we created the Fiber-to-Fiber Consortium with our partners On, Patagonia, Puma, PVH Corp and Salomon. This consortium focuses on the circular recycling of polyester fibers, enabling a sustainable future for the fashion and textile industries.

In 2023, the Textile Preparation line was inaugurated to streamline the textile preparation phase, which is currently carried out by hand or on several lines. CARBIOS developed a fully integrated and automated line that transforms textile waste from used garments or cutting scraps into raw material suitable for depolymerization with our enzymatic biorecycling process. This patented line integrates all preparation stages, such as shredding and extraction of hard points (buttons, zips, etc.).

Groundbreaking Ceremony for World’s First PET Biorecycling Plant occurred this year, 2024!

Located in Longlaville, in the Grand-Est region of France, CARBIOS' first commercial plant will play a key role in the fight against plastic pollution, offering an industrial-scale solution for the enzymatic depolymerization of PET waste to accelerate a circular economy for plastic and textiles. The plant will have a processing capacity of 50kt/year of prepared waste when operating at full capacity.

Also, this year (2024) CARBIOS and our research partners at Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI) published a groundbreaking article in Nature that presents enzyme optimization work leading to an enzyme-embedded PLA able to disintegrate and biodegrade in home-compost conditions faster than certification timeframe requirements.

CARBIOS has two solutions (one for biorecycling of PET and one for biodegradation of PLA) and both have featured in Nature! This recognition from the scientific community is a remarkable achievement which confirms our leadership in enzymatic degradation of plastic.

WT: CARBIOS has been identified as the first and only company in the world combining two sciences of enzymology and plastic. Please unpack this.

Ladent: Indeed, CARBIOS is the first company in the world to combine the sciences of enzymology and plastic processing to address the global challenge of plastic waste pollution.

In simple terms, enzymology is the study of enzymes—natural proteins that speed up chemical reactions. At CARBIOS, we’ve developed unique enzymes that can specifically break down PET plastic and polyester fibers at the molecular level. By applying the science of enzymology to plastic, we’ve created a revolutionary process that allows us to recycle PET with no loss in quality. This combination of biotechnology and material science is what sets CARBIOS apart.

Our work is deeply rooted in scientific research, and we partner closely with leading academic and industrial research institutions (such as INSA, CNRS and TBI) to constantly innovate and optimize our enzyme-based processes. These partnerships help us remain at the cutting edge of scientific advancements and ensure that our technology continues to evolve for industrial applications.

We have also forged an exclusive long-term agreement with Novonesis, the world leader in enzyme production, to ensure the enzyme supply at industrial scale for our future first commercial plant in Longlaville and for all future plants under license.

Beyond R&D, we believe the whole ecosystem should unite so we continue to forge partnerships and close collaborations with industrial players, brand partners, strategic shareholders, and institutional bodies.

WT: How does the process work? How is it different from other processes? What are the applications of this process?

Ladent: CARBIOS has developed an enzymatic recycling process that uses an enzyme capable of specifically depolymerizing PET (polyethylene terephthalate) found in various plastics and textiles. Unlike conventional recycling methods, which have limitations and result in quality loss with each cycle, CARBIOS' innovation enables the recycling of all types of PET waste, including complex and soiled plastic, while producing recycled and recyclable PET products without compromising quality. Plastic and textile waste is now a precious raw material enabling the circular economy to become an industrial reality.

The process involves purifying the resulting monomers from depolymerization, which can then be repolymerized into high-quality PET equivalent to virgin PET obtained from the petrochemical industry. This innovation meets strong demand from consumers, public authorities and manufacturers who have made ambitious commitments in terms of sustainable development and eco-design of their packaging and products. This revolutionary technology makes it possible to recover all PET waste, including waste that cannot be recovered using current recycling technologies, such as food trays or textiles.

WT: Is it possible to make a clear plastic bottle from a polyester T-shirt?

Ladent: CARBIOS has effectively entered the circular economy by developing a technology that allows for plastic and textiles to be recycled while maintaining high quality. Our process involves breaking down materials into their core building blocks, known as monomers. These monomers are then purified and used to create new products that are just as high-quality as the original materials.

So, to answer your question: Yes, it is indeed possible to make a clear plastic bottle from a T-shirt using our technology. If the T-shirt is made from polyester (which is another term for PET), our enzymes can break it down into its monomers. These monomers are then used to produce recycled PET in either resin or fiber form. Using resin, a clear, high-quality plastic bottle can be produced—just as if it were made from virgin PET.

This biorecycling process ensures that even when materials are recycled multiple times, they retain their original quality, contributing to a more sustainable and circular economy.

WT: CARBIOS has received many honors. What has this meant for the Team?

Ladent: Receiving numerous honors and recognition has been incredibly meaningful for every CARBIOS employee. It fills us all with pride to know that our work is making a significant difference and contributing to meaningful change in the world. These accolades motivate us to continue pursuing our mission with even greater dedication.

The greatest recognition, however, will come with the opening of the world’s first PET biorecycling plant and our technology being used globally, truly demonstrating its impact on the environment and the circular economy. This will be the ultimate validation of our efforts and vision.

WT: Tell us about the recycling plant and other projects for 2024 and beyond.

Ladent: The plant will have the capacity to process 50,000 tons of prepared PET waste per year (equivalent to 2 billion colored bottles, 2.5 billion food trays or 300 million T-shirts).

The plant will create 150 direct and indirect jobs in the region. In February 2024, CARBIOS and De Smet Engineers & Contractors (DSEC) announced their collaboration to manage construction. Several feedstock supply agreements, notably with CITEO, Landbell Group and Hündgen for PET waste from packaging and food trays, and Tomra Textiles and Nouvelles Fibres Textiles specifically for textile waste, will secure most of the raw materials required. Close to the borders with Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, the plant's location is strategic for access to nearby waste supplies. Construction is progressing as planned, and we expect to deliver significant quantities to clients in 2026.

Another major milestone is expected this year with the validation at demonstration scale of biorecyling applied to polyester fibers to achieve true circularity. This is a much-awaited milestone by our partners and by the textile and fashion industries.

The recent announcements of a joint Letter of Intent with Zhink Group in China, SASA in Turkey and FCC Environment in the UK confirm global traction for our biorecycling technology and mark a significant step in the international roll-out of our licensing model.

We are also actively deploying CARBIOS Active, with North America as a key market. As CARBIOS expands its portfolio of enzymatic solutions beyond PET, enzyme-embedded PLA represents a major leap forward, addressing a critical gap in the market for compostable plastic.

The recognition from the scientific community through our latest publication in Nature comes in addition to recent certifications, such as the Food Contact Notification delivered by the FDA in North America, to attest CARBIOS Active’s performance and support its commercial deployment. We expect first sales this year.

We are also working on enzyme-based solutions for other types of plastic, such as polyamides. R&D is still in its early phase, but we expect to move faster with the expertise and experience gained over the years.

WT: Looking forward. What's next? How are you working toward a global presence?

Looking ahead, CARBIOS is advancing its global presence through a licensing model. We’ve already signed Letters of Intent in China, Turkey, and the UK, marking a strong start to our international expansion.

Our innovative biorecycling technology has generated significant global interest, and we are actively pursuing new partnerships to deploy our solutions worldwide. This licensing approach will help us scale our impact and move fast.

CARBIOS has ambitious plans to become a leading technology provider in the recycling of PET by 2035.

Another key advantage of our PET biorecycling technology is its significant reduction in CO2 emissions. Our most recent lifecycle analysis demonstrates a reduction of 90% in CO2 emissions compared to the production of virgin PET. Furthermore, with biorecycled PET, we are reducing our reliance on petroleum for plastic production.

At CARBIOS, we’re not only creating sustainable solutions but also redefining how we think about waste. Our technology enables us to close the loop on materials, making it possible for them to live multiple lives without ever losing their value.

So, as you look around at the products you use every day, think about their potential for renewal: What if the waste of today could be the resource of tomorrow? Embracing this mindset is key to creating a future where our environmental footprint is minimized, and the materials we rely on can enter a truly circular economy.