Profits With A Purpose

How Four Corporates And A Startup Are Teaming To Create Infinitely Recyclable Plastic

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Article Summary:

This week Carbios, a French biochemistry startup, presented a breakthrough way of dealing with plastic packaging to the Consumer Goods Forum,  which brings together some of the world’s largest retailers, service providers, and manufacturers. The hope is that many of the 400 +companies in the group will eventually adopt the technology, which aims to make polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste, one of the most common plastics in consumer goods, “infinitely recyclable.”

Carbios’ enzymatic PET recycling technology – which  promises  to break down 97% of plastics within 16 hours – is already scaling up thanks to an agreement it has with L’Oréal, Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe to fund its research and development.

The collaboration – and the pitch to the Consumer Goods Forum – represents a sea change in the way corporates work with each other and with startups. It also serves as an example of how traditional companies can work with startups and scale-ups to help solve the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals and move towards a circular economy.

About the author

Jennifer L. Schenker

Jennifer L. Schenker, an award-winning journalist, has been covering the global tech industry from Europe since 1985, working full-time, at various points in her career for the Wall Street Journal Europe, Time Magazine, International Herald Tribune, Red Herring and BusinessWeek. She is currently the editor-in-chief of The Innovator, an English-language global publication about the digital transformation of business. Jennifer was voted one of the 50 most inspiring women in technology in Europe in 2015 and 2016 and was named by Forbes Magazine in 2018 as one of the 30 women leaders disrupting tech in France. She has been a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneers judge for 20 years. She lives in Paris and has dual U.S. and French citizenship.