World’s first PET biorecycling plant receives building permit

Carbios has obtained building permit and operating authorization for the world’s first PET biorecycling plant in Longlaville, France, allowing construction to start.

Construction to start in 2023

Providing an industrial-scale enzymatic recycling solution for PET waste, the plant will be built on a 13.7-hectare site adjacent to the existing PET production plant of Carbio’s strategic partner, Indorama Ventures.

The mockup of the PET biorecycling plant in Longlaville.

The state-of-the-art facility will have an annual processing capacity of 50,000 tons of post-consumer PET waste, which originally is non-recyclable mechanically. The number is equivalent to 2 billion colored PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET food trays.

The construction of the plant can start before the end of 2023 and commissioning is expected to start in 2025. A total investment is estimated at around EUR 230 million.

Design for maximized circularity

The plant is designed to maximize circularity, with high-quality output products, and minimize its environmental footprint, especially with regards to energy consumption.

Optimizations are also underway to further increase the recycling of water required for the process.

Located near the borders with Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg, the plant’s location is strategic for nearby waste supply. Moreover, Carbio’s biorecycling technology can process complex waste that conventional technologies cannot recycle, and produce food-grade products, enhancing the plant’s flexibility for waste supply.

Carbios has already secured an initial supply source by winning part of the CITEO tender for the biorecycling of multilayer food trays. The company will handle the portion of flow consisting of multilayer food trays at the Longlaville plant in 2025.