Carbios harnesses packaging bio recycling tech for textile circularity

31 Jul 2024 --- Carbios and French textile recovery company New Textile Fibers are partnering to supply polyester textiles for the “world’s first” PET bio recycling plant under construction in Longlaville, France. 

Bénédicte Garbil, senior vice president for Corporate Affairs & Sustainability at Carbios, tells Packaging Insights that the packaging industry’s experience, particularly with PET bottles, offers valuable insights for achieving circularity in the textile sector.

“In Europe, PET bottle collection rates reached 61% in 2020, significantly higher than the 21% for more complex items like PET food trays, which involve multiple layers of different plastics. This disparity highlights the importance of efficient recycling technologies and infrastructure in increasing recycling rates.”

Carbios’ technology, capable of recycling complex PET waste such as food trays, demonstrates the potential for closing the loop in challenging areas, says Garbil. “Our recent collaborations, including Citeo’s tender focusing on creating a closed-loop system for food trays in France, exemplify this progress.”

“In the textile industry, only 1% of recycled fibers are currently derived from textile fibers. The introduction of innovative recycling technologies, like Carbios’ enzymatic depolymerization process for recycling polyester, can transform this landscape. However, achieving significant progress requires comprehensive involvement across the value chain, from eco-design and usage to collection and recycling,” she says.

The packaging industry’s experience, particularly with PET bottles, offers valuable insights for achieving circularity in the textile sector. “To replicate the success seen with PET bottles in textiles, it’s crucial to develop infrastructure and establish partnerships throughout the industry. The packaging sector’s journey toward higher recycling rates underscores the necessity of robust collection systems and supportive regulations.”

“The EU’s upcoming mandate for separate textile collection by 2025 and its 2030 vision for textiles made ‘to a great extent’ from recycled fibers are promising steps toward fostering a circular economy in textiles,” adds Garbil.

Refreshing fibers 
The polyester textiles supplied will come from used or end-of-life textiles prepared in France by New Textile Fibers for recycling using Carbios’ enzymatic depolymerization technology. 

The established contract between the parties will allow 5,000 metric tons of these textiles annually to be redirected to bio recycling from 2026 over an initial period of five years.

New Textile Fibers, a unique semi-industrial site with an annual capacity of 1,000 metric tons, opened in November 2023. This was the first step before the construction of a 20,000–30,000 metric ton unit in 2026. 

This first site, a research center for textile recycling, combines the expertise of several French companies, including textile recycler Andritz Laroche, intelligent sorting company Pellenc ST, textile waste sorter and recycler Synergie TLC and the Tissages de Charlieu group, a player in weaving, clothing and textile recycling. 

The unit aims to transform used textiles into quality raw materials — irrigating the various industries using textile fibers (plastics, non-woven, insulation and textiles) by automatically sorting them by composition while eliminating hard points such as buttons, zips and badges.

Carbios’ bio recycling technology uses enzymes to break down polyester fibers into their basic components. These components are then used to produce high-quality recycled PET materials, such as fibers, for the textile industry.

Carbios anticipates this so-called “fiber-to-fiber” solution to make polyester a “truly circular fiber” on a large scale.

Packaging and textile recyclingTextile waste poses greater technical recycling challenges than packaging due to various treatments, dyes and contaminants.
The recycling challenges in the packaging and textile industries differ significantly, particularly due to the complexity of materials used in textiles compared to packaging.

Garbil explains that textile waste poses greater technical challenges due to the various treatments, dyes and contaminants present. “Unlike packaging, which often involves more uniform materials, textiles are frequently composed of complex fiber blends, such as polyester mixed with cotton, viscose, polyamide or elastane.”

Additionally, textiles often contain accessories like buttons and zips, referred to as “hard points,” which must be removed to facilitate recycling. “This complexity makes textile recycling more intricate than packaging recycling,” she adds. 

The collection rates for textile waste are significantly lower than those for packaging, varying between 15–25% worldwide, depending on the country, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. 

“This contrasts with higher collection rates for PET bottles, where mature recycling systems are more established. The sorting of textile waste is also predominantly manual. In response to this challenge, Carbios inaugurated a preparation line for the bio recycling of textiles in October 2023,” says Garbil.

Automated textile preparation 
The automated textile preparation line produces textile waste — from used garments or cutting scraps — suitable for depolymerization. 

“This innovative and patented line integrates all preparation stages (including shredding and removal of hard points), providing Carbios with a high-performance, scalable development tool,” explains Garbil.

The line gives Carbios the expertise to work with collection and sorting operators to specify the quality of textiles suitable for enzymatic recycling.

“Carbios’ enzymatic recycling has successfully demonstrated fiber-to-fiber recycling at the pilot scale, and efforts are underway to validate this process at the demonstration plant scale within the year,” says Garbil. 

“Given that two-thirds of all PET production is used for polyester fibers (compared to one-third for packaging resins), the stakes in developing effective recycling solutions are substantial.”

“Carbios’ advancements in enzymatic recycling technology are poised to significantly impact this sector, facilitating the creation of a circular economy for textiles and helping brands reduce their environmental footprint and reduce their dependence on recycled PET from bottles.”

By Natalie Schwertheim