Clothing Goes Circular: The World's First Enzymatically Recycled Garment

Carbios, a French biotechnology leader, is at the forefront of innovation in plastic recycling, introducing a cutting-edge process of enzymatic recycling that promises to revolutionize the industry. This method allows PET-based textiles to be broken down into their original building blocks and repurposed, creating the foundation for a true circular economy.

In an interview with K-Mag, Chief Scientific Officer Alain Martin sheds light on the science behind enzymatic technology, its application to the textile industry, and its potential to transform how we manage waste.

PET is a common material in textiles, but what makes it so challenging to recycle?

Alain Martin: PET is a cornerstone material in modern industries, particularly in textiles and packaging. Each year, around 100 million tons of PET are produced, and nearly two-thirds are used in textiles such as polyester fabrics. While PET is theoretically recyclable, the reality is far more complicated.

Unlike PET bottles, which are relatively straightforward to recycle, textiles often contain blended materials like cotton, polyamide, or elastane. On top of that, they are dyed and treated with various chemicals. These factors make it challenging to recycle PET-based textiles efficiently. This complexity has left the textile industry lagging behind packaging when it comes to plastic recycling solutions.

What sets Carbios' enzymatic recycling technology apart from traditional methods?

Alain Martin: Traditional recycling methods, such as thermomechanical and chemical recycling, have limitations. Thermomechanical recycling, for instance, degrades the quality of the material with each cycle, and chemical methods often require harsh conditions and produce secondary waste.

Our enzymatic recycling process uses highly specific enzymes as "molecular scissors" to break down PET into its core building blocks: terephthalic acid (PTA) and monoethylene glycol (MEG). What makes our process unique is its precision—our enzyme is engineered to target only PET, leaving other textile components, like cotton or polyamide, untouched. This ensures high purity in the recycled material, which can be repurposed into new textiles or even food-grade packaging without loss of quality.

How does this enzymatic process contribute to sustainability and the circular economy?

Alain Martin: Our enzymatic process aligns perfectly with the principles of the circular economy. Unlike traditional methods, it operates at a much lower temperature—around 65°C compared to the 200°C needed for thermomechanical recycling. This significantly reduces energy consumption, lowering the process's carbon footprint.

Additionally, the high selectivity of our enzyme minimizes waste and by-products, creating a cleaner and more sustainable recycling process. By converting PET waste into pure raw materials that can be reused indefinitely, we close the loop on polyester products, enabling textiles to be recycled multiple times without compromising quality.

What are the specific challenges of applying this technology to textiles, and how has Carbios addressed them?

Alain Martin: Textiles are far more complex than PET bottles due to their diverse material blends, dyeing processes, and other chemical treatments. These factors introduce unique challenges in breaking down PET while leaving other materials intact.

To address this, we partnered with major brands like Patagonia, Puma, and Salomon to test our technology on real-world textile waste. These collaborations allowed us to refine our process using post-industrial textile samples that represent the market’s diversity. For example, we used 11 different textile samples to produce our first biorecycled T-shirt, demonstrating the robustness and versatility of our process.

Scaling up innovative technologies is often a bottleneck. How has Carbios managed this transition?

Alain Martin: Scaling from laboratory to industrial production is always a critical challenge for new technologies. At Carbios, we have successfully scaled our enzymatic process in three stages: lab-scale, pilot-scale, and now demonstration-scale.

Our demonstration plant in France can process up to two tons of PET waste per batch—equivalent to approximately 100,000 bottles or 20,000 T-shirts. What’s remarkable is that the kinetics of the enzymatic reaction remain consistent regardless of reactor size. This scalability makes it relatively straightforward to integrate our process into industrial settings.

We are now building our first full-scale industrial plant in northeastern France. With a reactor capacity of 350 cubic meters, this plant will be capable of processing 50,000 tons of PET waste annually.

What does the future hold for Carbios and enzymatic recycling?

Alain Martin: Our immediate focus is on completing the industrial plant and proving the scalability of our process. Beyond that, we plan to license our technology globally. Asia is a particularly important market for us, given its dominant role in textile production. Countries like China, Vietnam, and South Korea will be critical to scaling up circular textile recycling.

We estimate that consumers could see biorecycled garments in stores by 2027 or 2028. Our ultimate goal is to make enzymatic recycling a widely adopted and commercially viable solution, not just for textiles but across industries that rely on PET.