Carbios joins Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s circular economy network and aims to "make plastic waste and pollution a thing of the past"^[1]

• Carbios’ innovations in biorecycling and biodegradability match the Foundation’s three actions for a circular economy for plastic: eliminate, innovate, circulate
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s work in fashion will support Carbios’ contribution in making the textile industry more circular    

Clermont-Ferrand, France, 06 March 2023 (6.00PM CET). Carbios (Euronext Growth Paris: ALCRB), a pioneer in the development and industrialization of biological technologies to reinvent the life cycle of plastics and textiles, announces its membership of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network.  Carbios shares the Foundation’s commitment to accelerate the transition to a circular economy, especially in the areas of plastics and fashion.  By joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network, Carbios will connect with other leaders within the Foundation’s leading circular economy network of businesses, policymakers, academia, innovators, and thought leaders worldwide.

“Becoming a member of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network is an important step for Carbios’ development, and an obvious one given our shared commitment to a circular economy,” said Emmanuel Ladent, Chief Executive Officer of Carbios. “With access to ideas, thought leaders and new collaborators, we’re excited to leverage the Foundation’s network of experts to support market access for our innovative solutions for reducing plastic pollution.”   

“Carbios is a highly respected organization with the ability to deliver impact and a high level of organizational buy-in. We welcome Carbios as a Network Member and look forward to supporting the company on its circular economy journey," said Katie Attrill, Network Manager at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Carbios fully adheres to Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s vision for a circular economy for plastic.  Its revolutionary biorecycling and biodegradation technologies already match the actions defined by the Foundation:

1. Eliminate all problematic and unnecessary plastic items
2. Innovate to ensure that the plastics we do need are reusable, recyclable, or compostable
3. Circulate all the plastic items we use to keep them in the economy and out of the environment

Through ambitious collaborative projects, plastics and fashion are two topic areas for the Foundation and are also at the heart of Carbios’ activities.  Providing actionable solutions to support brands’ ambitious commitments for sustainable packaging and textile industries, Carbios has founded two consortiums: one in the packaging industry established with L’Oréal in 2019, which has since been joined by Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe; another created in 2022 in the textile industry with apparel and fashion brands On, Patagonia, PUMA, PVH Corp. and Salomon. Together, the consortium members develop solutions promoting the recyclability and circularity of their products. 

Joining the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Network takes Carbios' circular economy actions one step further.  Carbios recently underscored its commitment to circularity and environmental responsibilities by publishing its first Sustainability Report at the end of 2022^[2].  In 2019, Carbios’ biorecycling and biodegradable solutions were among the first innovations to be labelled “Efficient Solution” by the Solar Impulse Foundation^[3]. 

About Carbios

Established in 2011 by Truffle Capital, Carbios is a green chemistry company, developing biological and innovative processes. Through its unique approach of combining enzymes and plastics, Carbios aims to address new consumer expectations and the challenges of a broad ecological transition by taking up a major challenge of our time: plastic and textile pollution. Carbios deconstructs any type of PET (the dominant polymer in bottles, trays, textiles made of polyester) into its basic components which can then be reused to produce new PET plastics with equivalent quality to virgin ones. This PET innovation, the first of its kind in the world, was recently recognized in a scientific paper published on the front cover of the prestigious journal Nature. Carbios successfully started up its demonstration plant in Clermont-Ferrand in 2021. It has now taken another key step towards the industrialization of its process with the construction of a first-of-a-kind unit in partnership with Indorama Ventures.

In 2017, Carbios and L’Oréal co-founded a consortium to contribute to the industrialization of its proprietary recycling technology. Committed to developing innovative solutions for sustainable development, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe joined this consortium in April 2019. In 2022, Carbios signed an agreement with On, Patagonia, PUMA, and Salomon, to develop solutions promoting the recyclability and circularity of their products.  PVH Corp. joined this consortium in January 2023.

The Company has also developed an enzymatic biodegradation technology for PLA-based (a bio sourced polymer) single-use plastics. This technology can create a new generation of plastics that are 100% compostable in domestic conditions, integrating enzymes at the heart of the plastic product.

For more information, please visit www.carbios.com/en   /  Twitter: Carbios LinkedIn: Carbios Instagram: insidecarbios

Carbios (ISIN FR0011648716/ALCRB) is eligible for the PEA-PME, a government program allowing French residents investing in SMEs to benefit from income tax rebates.

Translation is for information purposes only.
In case of discrepancy between the French and the English version of this press release, the English version shall prevail

^[1]      https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/plastics/overview

^[2] Cf. press release dated 15 December 2022

^[3] The Solar Impulse Foundation has identified over a thousand clean and profitable solutions that are economically viable and can be implemented on a large scale.