Recycling plastic with enzymes

Good news! There are several ways plastic waste can be recycled!

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"French biotechnology start-up Carbios has developed an enzymatic process for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) back into its constituent monomers ... So the vast majority of PET waste today is not easily recyclable.’ [until now] ...

The team started from an enzyme described by a Japanese research group in 2012, evolved to break down the waxy cutin later on plants’ leaves. This could break down a small amount of PET, but required large amounts of enzyme and took several weeks. Through a process of directed evolution, the team produced better enzymes that work faster, and could withstand higher temperatures. ‘We fully redesigned the active site,’ ...

PET can be crystalline or amorphous ... but the enzymatic degradation is much more effective on amorphous forms, so Carbios has also developed an extrusion pre-treatment process to ensure the material going into the enzymatic reactor is amorphous. ...
That means a recycling plant could very easily be coupled directly to existing PET production plants. ...
how Carbios began scaling up its laboratory process in 2018. ‘In 2021, we constructed a demonstration plant in central France, built to be scalable.’ The company is now setting up a joint venture with chemicals producer Indorama Ventures to build a commercial-scale biorecycling plant adjacent to Indorama’s existing PET plant ..."

Recycling plastic with enzymes | Business | Chemistry World Carbios can return even hard-to-recycle polyester fibres and textiles to their constituent monomers

The company’s demonstration plant is built to grow and provide data on scaling, in preparation for a first commercial plant, scheduled for 2025