Carbios has broken ground on its PET depolymerisation plant in Longlaville, France, totted as the world’s first PET biorecycling plant.
The occasion was marked by a ceremony attended by over 200 guests and has drawn praise from France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
“At a time when governments are negotiating an international treaty against plastic pollution in Ottowa, the groundbreaking of Carbios’ biorecycling plant is particularly significant,” Macron said. “It illustrates France's commitment to the ecological transition, and demonstrates our ability to turn challenges into opportunities for a more sustainable future. This plant, a world first, embodies French innovation in responding to complex environmental challenges, offering a sustainable solution for a future where plastic and textile waste will be transformed into valuable resources for a truly circular economy,” the President added.
This February, Carbios appointed De Smet Engineers & Contractors with engineering, procurement, and construction services for the plant, signalling it was moving forward with construction.
Carbios said in a statement that ‘work is progressing on schedule’, with customers deliveries in ‘significant quantities’ expected in 2026.
The plant will be able to process about 50,000 tonnes of post-consumer PET waste per year, equivalent to 2 billion PET coloured bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays. The plot on which the plant is being built offers space to double the capacity in the future.
Carbios’ enzymatic depolymerisation process enables the efficient and solvent-free recycling of PET plastic and textile waste into virgin-equivalent products.
The total capital investment for the new plant is re-estimated to be around €230 million, considering recent impact from inflation. Project costs will be financed by the sums mobilised by Indorama Ventures, the French State and Grand-Est Region subsidies available for the project, and by equity capitalisation of the joint venture by Carbios.