Carbios announces that it has been granted the building permit and operating authorization for the world's first PET1 biorecycling plant, allowing construction to start. The plant will be built in Longlaville (54) in the Grand-Est Region on a 13.7-hectare site adjacent to the existing PET production plant of Indorama Ventures, its strategic partner. This state-of-the-art facility, scheduled for commissioning in 2025, will play a crucial role in the fight against plastic pollution by providing an industrial-scale enzymatic recycling solution for PET waste. Carbios' technology enables PET circularity and offers an alternative raw material to virgin fossil-based monomers, allowing PET producers, chemical companies, waste management firms, public entities, and brands to have an effective solution to meet regulatory requirements and fulfill their sustainability commitments. The plant will have a processing capacity of 50,000 tons of post-consumer PET waste per year (mostly waste that is non-recyclable mechanically, equivalent to 2 billion colored PET bottles or 2.5 billion PET food trays) and will generate 150 direct and indirect jobs in the region.
Emmanuel Ladent, CEO of Carbios: "Everything is now in place so that construction of our plant can officially begin! We obtained the permits in line with the announced schedule, and we are eager to deliver a facility of great local and international significance for a circular economy of plastic. We would like to thank the French State and the Municipality of Longlaville for their support throughout the administrative procedure and for their commitment in issuing the operating and building permits in 10 months."
Lionel Arras, Director of Industrial Development: "I am very proud of the Carbios teams who have reached this critical milestone in this significant project. With more than 80 engineers involved, both internally and externally, it is a tremendous team effort with our goal of commissioning in 2025 on track."
Construction progress according to schedule
On 28 September 2023, Françoise Souliman, Prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle, issued the environmental operating permit, followed by the building permit on 24 October 2023 by Mr. Hamdi Toudma, Mayor of Longlaville. These permits were obtained after an administrative procedure, including public consultation, which evaluated the site's future impacts on water resources and aquatic environment protection, energy consumption, landscape integration, traffic, etc.
Carbios submitted the authorization requests to local authorities last December. Construction of the plant can start before the end of this year for commissioning in 2025.
