Chemical recycling specialist Carbios (Saint-Beauzire / France; www.carbios.fr) has extended its enzymatic depolymerisation process to allow for the successful reclamation of PET fibres from textile waste. The firm has depolymerised 100% PET textile waste fibres into monomers PTA (terephthalic acid) and MEG (monoethylene glycol). Most textile waste is currently landfilled or incinerated. What recycling processes of textile fibres do exist are inefficient and lead to a lower quality by-product than the original material.

With Europe and other regions struggling to recycle mountains of textile waste, Carbios claims its technology will help turn what is a major environmental threat into a new opportunity, based on circular economy principles. Alain Marty, Carbios’ chief scientific officer said, “Turning unwanted polyester textiles into high-quality raw materials for new products using [our] enzymatic technology is an opportunity for completely changing textile manufacturing and trade in Europe and beyond.”

The company notes that each year, 43m t of PET are produced globally for the fibre market. This is in contrast to the 15m t dedicated to the production of plastic bottles.

Carbiolice (Riom / France; www.carbiolice.com), a joint venture between Carbios and agricultural co-operative Limagrain (Saint-Beauzire / France; www.limagrain.com), is using Carbios' technology with funding from French bank Bpifrance to produce film compounds made from corn meal. The plant in Riom has a production capacity of 4,000 t/y.