Skip to main content
Climate
Search

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
MIT

Main navigation

  • Climate 101
    • What We Know
    • What Can Be Done
    • Climate Primer
  • Explore
    • Explainers
    • Ask MIT Climate
    • Podcast
    • For Educators
  • MIT Action
    • News
    • Events
    • Resources
  • Search
PostOctober 8, 2021

A French company is using enzymes to recycle one of the most common single-use plastics

2 clear, 1 orange, and 1 green plastic bottles

Plastic is an environmental scourge, and most isn't recycled. Enzymes, nature’s catalysts, may be able to help.

In late September, Carbios, a French startup, opened a demonstration plant in central France to test this idea. The facility will use enzymes to recycle PET, one of the most common single-use plastics and the material used to make most beverage bottles. 

While we’ve had mechanical methods for recycling some plastics, like PET, for decades, chemical and enzyme-based processes could produce purer products or allow us to recycle items like clothes that conventional techniques can’t process, writes Casey Crownhart.

Read the full article at: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/10/06/1036571/carbios-enzymes-recycle-plastics-pet/

Image credits: Jerome Palle

by MIT Technology Review
Topics
Industry & Manufacturing
Waste

Related Posts

PostJuly 4, 2025

Robotic probe quickly measures key properties of new materials

MIT News
Scientists are striving to discover new semiconductor materials that could boost the efficiency of solar cells and other electronics. The pace of innovation is bottlenecked by the speed at which researchers can manually measure important material properties, but a fully autonomous robotic system developed by MIT researchers could speed things up.
PostJuly 2, 2025

3 Questions: How MIT’s venture studio is partnering with MIT labs to solv...

MIT News
David Cohen-Tanugi has been the venture builder for Proto Ventures’ fusion and clean energy channel since 2023.
PostJuly 1, 2025

VAMO proposes an alternative to architectural permanence

MIT News
VAMO (Vegetal, Animal, Mineral, Other), is an ultra-lightweight, biodegradable, and transportable canopy designed to circle around a brick column in the Corderie of the Venice Arsenale — a historic space originally used to manufacture ropes for the city’s naval fleet.
PostJune 27, 2025

Nth Cycle is bringing critical metals refining to the U.S.

MIT News
A rendering of Nth Cycle's modular refining system called "The Oyster."

MIT Climate News in Your Inbox

 
 

MIT Groups Log In

Log In

Footer

  • About
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility
  • Contact
MIT Climate Project
MIT
Communicator Award Winner
Communicator Award Winner