Scientists at Carbios and Toulouse Biotechnology Institute have published peer-reviewed results demonstrating enzymatic depolymerisation of PET plastic at commercial scale, achieving 90% plastic-to-monomer conversion rates — far above the 60-70% achieved by conventional mechanical recycling.
The dual-credit opportunity
The process generates heat from exothermic reactions, which Carbios plans to capture for energy generation, potentially enabling a facility to achieve both plastic credit certification (under Verra VMR0006) and carbon removal credit issuance (under Gold Standard).
Limitations
The technology currently handles only PET (beverage bottles, polyester fibre), which represents approximately 18% of plastic waste by volume. Expansion to polyolefins (PE, PP) requires separate enzyme development.