Earth911 Podcast: Carbios' Emmanuel Ladent on the Dawn of Enzymatic Plastic Recycling

Is plastic recycling at a turning point? Meet Emmanuel Ladent, CEO of <a href="https://www.carbios.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Carbios</a>, a Clermont-Ferrand, France-based company that has developed an enzymatic plastic recycling technology that promises to <a href="https://earth911.com/podcast/earth911-podcast-bridgestones-bill-niaura-on-creating-a-circular-tire-recycling-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">make plastic a circular material</a> with 95% yields, comparable to aluminum. The C<a href="https://www.carbios.com/en/enzymatic-recycling/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arbios technology</a> recycles polyethylene terephthalate, or clear and <a href="https://earth911.com/how-to-recycle/recycling-mystery-black-colored-plastic/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">colored PET</a>, better known as <a href="https://earth911.com/home-garden/infographic-plastic-recycling-codes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Plastic #1</a>, which is the basis for making <a href="https://earth911.com/business-policy/the-state-of-the-plastic-bottle/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">billions of single-use bottles</a> and thermoform containers for produce, as well as the polyester used in clothing. Carbios' process requires no sorting of PET and polyester, relying on much lower temperatures than mechanical recycling, so it requires less energy water. Emmanuel explains that the Carbios process produces two monomers, the chemical basis for making new PET, which can be recycling many times contrast to the two or three cycles today's PET recycling can deliver.<br /><br />Plastic recycling has stumbled and <a href="https://earth911.com/business-policy/greenwashing-untruth-in-advertising/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">greenwashed</a> its way through <a href="https://earth911.com/business-policy/pet-plastic-recycling-made-progress-that-you-can-help-accelerate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a slow evolution</a> and <a href="https://e