CARBIOS (NYSE Alternext in Paris: ALCRB), an innovative green chemistry company specializing in enzymatic bioprocesses applied to plastic and textile polymers, comforts the applicative potential of its innovations by making 100% recyclable all household packaging in opaque polyethylene terephthalate (PET) such as the new milk bottles.
Since recently, a technological revolution is on its way in the field of milk packaging as bottles made of opaque PET are widely replacing those made of high density PE (HDPE). This enabled to reduce their weight by 25%[1] and to eliminate the aluminium seal on bottle caps, leading to raw material savings and greater performances for industrials. However and as reported in the media recently, these new bottles, white outside and grey inside, are not recyclable by conventional processes. On a practical level, recyclers have to reject opaque PET bottles to landfill or incineration as their systems are unable to tolerate this new stream and to give it a second life.
Since 2012, CARBIOS carried out extensive research on the development of an enzymatic recycling process for PET. This work successfully demonstrated the depolymerization at 100% of PET based commercial products (bottles, packaging, films…) into their original monomers: TPA (terephthalic acid) and MEG (mono ethylene
Source: Carbios