Carbios and Zhink Group enter official discussions for long-term partnership to build PET biorecycling industrial capacities in China
Carbios and Chinese Zhink Group, one of China’s Top 500 Private Enterprises, specialising in two global industries, PET and textiles, announce the signing of a joint Letter of Intent to build a biorecycling plant in China using Carbios’ enzymatic depolymerisation technology to serve the global market. This agreement officialises collaboration towards a long-term partnership in view of a first licensing contract to build a plant with a minimum annual processing capacity of 50k tons of prepared PET waste and would contribute to accelerating a circular economy for plastic and textiles. China, as the leading producer of PET in the world, is a key market for Carbios, and this agreement is intended to establish a presence in this dominant market.
With 67 million tons of PET produced annually, representing 61% of global production, China is the world’s largest PET producer. With regional and global demand for recycled PET growing, China also has the potential to take the lead in recycled PET (rPET) production. In 2021, 58% of the world’s rPET was consumed in Asia (with 38% in China) underscoring this region’s importance both as a major producer and consumer. Furthermore, China is a key transformer of PET into resins and fibres used in numerous applications in the packaging and textile industries. Most notably, China is the primary country for transforming PET into fibre, representing 78% of all PET fibre transformation in the world. Sustainability and the “dual carbon” policies are considered as main drivers for the Chinese PET recycling industry.
Strategic partnership for Zhink and Carbios
For Zhink, the strategic focus is on the development of two global industries, PET and textiles, and to be a leader with sustainable competitiveness. Zhink is a major actor within the PET market with an annual production of 3 million tons of PET, serving domestic and global markets. Carbios has developed an enzymatic depolymerisation technology that is claimed to enable efficient and solvent-free recycling of PET plastic and textile waste into virgin-like products. The initial agreement between the two groups would allow Zhink to increase its recycled PET capacities and meet its sustainable competitiveness objectives by offering rPET from enzymatic recycling: a circular recycling solution that can process all types of PET waste including hard-to-recycle waste (such as opaque and coloured bottles, multilayer food trays and textile waste) while reducing CO2 emissions by 57% compared with virgin PET production. For Carbios, this agreement marks a significant step in the deployment of its technology worldwide and roll-out of its licensing model to achieve its ambition to become a leading technology provider in the recycling of PET by 2035. This Asia-based plant under license by Zhink would come in addition to the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET recycling plant which is currently under construction in Longlaville, France.
