Nov 30 2013
Carbios, a green chemistry company developing cutting-edge technologies in the recovery of plastic waste and the production of bio-polymers, and SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT announced the signing of a preliminary agreement for future cooperation in the field of recovery and recycling of plastic waste. This agreement shapes the two companies’ common strategy to place circular economy at the heart of their business model and propose new ways of recycling plastic waste.
As part of this preliminary phase, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT will provide Carbios with plastic waste deposits from its subsidiary SITA France's treatment sites. Carbios will explore plastic waste composition in order to enrich its range of biological tools and expand the potential of plastic waste recovery. Carbios will then test these bioprocesses on the available deposits and validate their processing efficiency for better recycling and recovery of waste plastics. The aim is to implement the most effective processes to decompose plastic waste and collect its basic component, the polymer, as high quality as a petroleum-based product. This infinite recycling process thus allows avoiding chemical and mechanical constraints encountered in conventional recycling processes.
The recycling of plastics: an environmental challenge
25 million tons of plastic waste are produced every year in Europe1 of which only 20% are recycled. They represent a major environmental challenge but also a considerable deposit of untapped renewable resources. Their recovery is at the heart of both Carbios and SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT's concerns.
“We are delighted that SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has placed its trust in us. This strengthens the strategic positioning of our innovative biological processes in the field of plastic waste recovery, as developed under the Thanaplast™ project. The combination of our expertises will accelerate the implementation of effective industrial solutions to the major environmental challenge posed by end-of-life plastic and provide an answer to this question: how can we recover and recycle more and more plastic waste with as little environmental impact as possible?”, said Jean-Claude Lumaret, CEO of Carbios.
“Innovation lies at the very heart of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT’s strategy, which accompanies young and promising companies like Carbios. Waste management is a major component of circular economy. It requires an effective process of resources and recovered products into secondary raw materials. SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has always sought, through its subsidiaries, to partner with complementary expertise to carry out its projects and remain a pioneer in its key domains – collecting and recycling”, said Paul-Joël Derian, Deputy Director of Innovation & Industrial Performance at SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT. “Carbios enzymatic processes seem particularly interesting and promising to us, as they will allow better recycling and recovery of end-of-life plastic waste while respecting the environment.”
1 Source: April 2011 European Commission – Plastic waste in the environment
Source: http://www.carbios.fr/