Beverage and beauty product suppliers aim to change PET plastic recycling

Beverage makers Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo, and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe have announced a major partnership with Carbios, a bio-industrial solutions company, and beauty leader L’Oréal aimed at advancing the circular economy.

The partnership was originally founded by Carbios and L’Oréal in a move to bring enhanced recycling technology designed and developed by Carbios to market on an industrial scale.

Now, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe are joining the consortium to help support the circular plastics economy using Carbios’ breakthrough enzyme-based enhanced recycling technology.

Carbios, which focuses on the lifecycle of plastic and textile polymers, has developed what it calls a unique and sustainable technology using highly specific enzymes that can recycle much broader PET plastics and polyester fibres feedstock than other recycling technologies. This process creates recycled PET, equivalent to virgin PET, that can be used for applications like bottles and other forms of packaging.

Under the terms of the four-year agreement, the partnership aims to bring Carbios’ PET-enhanced recycling technology to the market and increase the availability of high-quality recycled plastics to fulfill their sustainability commitments.

In a joint statement, the five companies claim that the collaboration includes technical milestones and support for the efficient supply of consumer-grade, 100 per cent recycled PET plastics for global markets.