CARBIOS Figures Out Polyester Fiber-to-Fiber RecyclingCARBIOS Figures Out Polyester Fiber-to-Fiber Recycling

For years, turning worn out polyester into new garments was nearly impossible.  The only recycled content you might find in polyester garb was from ground PET bottles. Now, green biotech company CARBIOS has figured out how to take this synthetic fiber and put it back in another garment.

The breakthrough technology leverages enzymes that cut the polymer down to its basic building blocks. It’s reformed to make virgin-like material that can be recycled up to 10 times, according to Emmanuel Ladent, CEO of CARBIOS.

The first shirt made completely from waste came to be following two years of experimenting with materials provided by Patagonia, PUMA, PVH (parent company of Calvin Klein), On, and Salomon, who also funded this early work.

The big brands were all in, as polyester makes up over 50 percent of fiber used by the fashion and textiles industries.  While working with recycled bottles was a start, it didn’t take care of clothes-makers’ waste problem.

“Industry is trying to shift away from bottle-to-fiber because at the end of the day you still have nonrecyclable polyester. Meanwhile, the industry uses more polyester every year. This new capability will be a huge opportunity for brands to increase their circularity and lower their carbon emissions,” Ladent says.

It’s been one step at a time for the French developer, beginning with seven years of lab work before launching a pilot plant, then a demo operation.

Those early demo days involved making packaging from recycled PET for PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and L’Oréal. Then came the expansion to fiber-to-fiber to make recycled polyester in 2022.  It was a natural transition since polyester and PET are the same polymer.

The first commercial plant, slated to launch in France in 2026, will process 50,000 tons of waste a year to create both packaging and textiles. For perspective, that’s 2 billion bottles, 2.5 billion food trays, or about 400 million t-shirts.

That’s big for brands but not enough for the planet in Ladent’s mind—not considering manufacturers crank out about 100 million tons of PET a year.

“We need to build at least 100 plants to serve the world. And we can’t operate them all ourselves. So, our goal is to finance the first plant and then license the technology to PET producers around the world,” he says.

Talks are ongoing with potential clients in Asia, Europe, and North America with three PET suppliers having signed letters of intent so far: one in China, one in Turkey, and a Spanish company that plans to build a plant in the U.K.

Ladent is especially fixed on the U.S., seeing good growth potential there.

“The U.S. is nice because it has huge distribution chains, big waste companies, and large brands and manufacturers looking for solutions to apply globally.”

CARBIOS will receive royalties from enzyme sales, with Novozymes signed as the exclusive enzyme producer and distributor.

Salomon, one of the brands who joined CARBIOS’ consortium, explored several solutions before onboarding, including mechanical and chemical recycling.  The French sports and clothing manufacturer opted to focus on the enzymatic process given its greater potential for emissions reductions, says Thibaut Poupard, Sr. innovation program manager & sustainability lead footwear, bags & socks at Salomon.

“How much recycled content we will use depends on the ramp-up. But as we are expecting the recycled polyester to have the same properties as virgin, we could hope to source a large part of our polyester from this recycled source,” he says.

The company’s support of CARBIOS builds on its own sustainability initiatives, including a program to take back a recyclable shoe it manufactures, with parts that are ground and incorporated into ski boot shells. And this winter Salomon will introduce a ski helmet composed of polyolefins that will be recycled to make items like car bumpers and flowerpots. 

An accelerating trend has been a powerful motivator.

“We know consumer demand for sustainable fashion and sports goods is growing.  And more and more consumers are expecting brands to act,” Poupard says.

Consortium partner On calls fiber-to-fiber recycling a crucial step in the industry's journey toward circularity and rose to the occasion to play a part.

“We loved the idea of a consortium with other brands keen to innovate and explore new solutions. We believe in the power of a team and understand that we can move faster when we collaborate,” says Begüm Kürkçü, global director of sustainability at On.

The Japanese running shoe brand that like Salomon has a takeback program for one of its recyclable products, among its sustainability work, awaits more opportunities to learn about circular design ideas and about building capacity.

“Pilots can provide valuable insights into how to scale up a new initiative or program. Our goal is to learn what works and what doesn’t,” Kürkçü says.

For CARBIOS, scaling and financing are the hardest work ahead.

That first 50,000-ton plant alone will cost about $239 million. The innovation has the attention of a few infrastructure funds who the biorecycling pioneer is hoping will reach deep into their pockets.

While the technology is ready to deploy, the research is ongoing to figure out if it can be taken further.  

Says Ladent: “We will be testing different feedstocks because there are several polyesters and sometimes they are mixed with elastane or other materials. And maybe in the future we can do nylons and other new polymers.”