Three companies have joined the consortium launched by recycling specialist Carbios (Saint-Beauzire / France; www.carbios.fr) and cosmetics company L’Oréal (Clichy / France; www.loreal.com) in 2017 – see Plasteurope.com of 08.11.2017. The new members are Nestlé Waters (Paris / France; www.nestle-waters.com), PepsiCo (Harrison, New York / USA; www.pepsico.com) and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe, which is part of Suntory Holdings (Tokyo / Japan; www.suntory.com).

Terms of the current four-year agreement call for bringing Carbios’ PET recycling technology to market in an effort to increase availability of plastics recyclate and thus help bottle manufacturers fulfil their circular economy commitments. The collaboration calls for technical milestones and support for the efficient supply of consumer grade 100% rPET globally.

Carbios’ enzymatic recycling process breaks down polymers into monomers that, following a subsequent separation and purification process, can be reprocessed into high-quality PET – see Plasteurope.com of 22.09.2016. The French recycling specialist recently achieved what it called a “world-first” in using the technology to produce PET bottles entirely from recyclate. The process claimed to be suitable for handling all forms of PET polymer and polyester fibre requires only limited heat and no pressure of solvents, thereby improving its environmental impact, the company said.