Car­bios enters joint devel­op­ment agree­ment with Novozymes to pro­duce its pro­pri­et­ary enzyme for com­plete recyc­ling of PET-plastics and fibers

CAR­BIOS (Euronext Growth Par­is: ALCRB), a com­pany pion­eer­ing new bio-indus­tri­al solu­tions to rein­vent the life­cycle of plastic and tex­tile poly­mers, announced today an exclus­ive part­ner­ship (Joint Devel­op­ment Agree­ment) with lead­ing bio­lo­gic­al solu­tions com­pany, Novozymes. This agree­ment secures the pro­duc­tion of Car­bios’ pro­pri­et­ary PET-degrad­ing enzymes at both a demon­stra­tion level and an indus­tri­al scale. The agree­ment also rep­res­ents a crit­ic­al step for Car­bios in demon­strat­ing the pos­it­ive envir­on­ment­al impact of its tech­no­logy and ensures it can provide its future cus­tom­ers with a sus­tain­able solu­tion for the infin­ite recyc­ling of PET-based products, such as water and soda bottles, plastic pack­aging and tex­tiles. Jean-Claude Lumaret, CEO of CAR­BIOS, said: ​“Many years ago we envi­sioned the great poten­tial of enzymes to bring PET-based plastics and fibers into the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy. Fol­low­ing a first part­ner­ship on PLA bio­de­grad­a­tion with Novozymes that began in Janu­ary 2019, today’s agree­ment on PET recyc­ling rein­forces our col­lab­or­a­tion. It also demon­strates the trust that the world’s largest pro­vider of enzyme tech­no­lo­gies has placed in Car­bios. We are proud to share this com­mon ambi­tion to pre­serve the planet’s resources and to work togeth­er with Novozymes, to help build a more sus­tain­able world.” Jens Kolind, VP House­hold Care Glob­al Mar­ket­ing at Novozymes adds: ​“At Novozymes, we help bring bio­lo­gic­al answers to many of the glob­al chal­lenges we face today. We are happy to expand our col­lab­or­a­tion with Car­bios where we work togeth­er on find­ing bio­lo­gic­al solu­tions to address the sig­ni­fic­ant sus­tain­ab­il­ity chal­lenge of plastic pol­lu­tion.” Car­bios has developed a bio­logy-based solu­tion which uses enzymes to break down widely used PET plastics and fibers. Unlike the lim­ited recyc­ling poten­tial of mech­an­ic­al pro­cesses, Car­bios’ approach gives new value to plastic, pre­vent­ing post-con­sumer plastics from mani­fest­ing as waste. Trans­form­ing the way plastics are pro­duced and safely recycled requires unpre­ced­en­ted levels of innov­a­tion and col­lab­or­a­tion. This agree­ment with Novozymes, along with the sup­port and vis­ion of Car­bios’ con­sumer brand Con­sor­ti­um, which includes L’Oréal, Nestlé Waters, Pep­siCo and Sun­tory Bever­age & Food Europe, brings the company’s pat­en­ted solu­tion one step fur­ther towards indus­tri­al and com­mer­cial real­ity. Draw­ing on the company’s pro­pri­et­ary enhanced recyc­ling tech­no­logy and the extens­ive exper­i­ence of its part­ners, Car­bios will launch the con­struc­tion of a demon­stra­tion plant for the recyc­ling of PET-based plastics and poly­es­ter fibers in 2020. The first oper­a­tions are expec­ted to begin in 2021, pri­or to a large-scale indus­tri­al deploy­ment. Source: Car­bios, press release, 30.01.2020