Biotherm And Carbios Leverage Biotechnology For An Innovative Pilot
Blue Beauty brand announces the realization of the first bottle made from 100% biorecycled plastic
Endless recycling. Once a dream for plastic recycling – and now becoming progressively more realistic thanks to Carbios’ breakthrough and unique enzymatic biorecycling process.
Today, most plastic can only be recycled about 2–3 times before its quality degrades to the point where it is no longer usable. Carbios’ transformational recycling technology uses hyper-charged enzymes from naturally occurring ones to break down PET plastic into its building blocks to like-new, virgin plastic quality to create an infinite, closed loop of recycling.
Discover the innovative Biotherm and Carbios pilot
Biotherm’s Waterlover Sun Milk has been selected as the first beauty product in the world to have a bottle made from 100% biorecycled PET plastic for a non-commercial pilot sample in summer 2021. This exciting news comes on the back of last year’s outstanding achievement for Biotherm, when the brand obtained the rigorous Nordic Swan Ecolabel for its Waterlover Sun Milk SPF30 and SPF50. This first realization is a milestone for the use of biorecycled plastic in the beauty industry as Carbios scales up production for full industrialization of its technology in 2025.
Discover more about our First Cosmetic Bottle Derived From Enzymatic Plastic Recycling
Today's gap in plastic recycling
With current recycling techniques, the same piece of plastic can be recycled about 2–3 times before its quality decreases to the point where it can no longer be used. Carbios’ process aims to keep plastic in a circular loop which is a fantastic way of conserving resources.
Carbios’ biotech approach to plastic recycling acknowledges this need-gap and puts forward a unique, game changing solution powered by enzymes.
“We are proud that our Waterlover Sun Milk gets to carry the mantle of being the first product in the beauty industry to pilot this incredible plastic. An iconic ocean-conscious suncare formula now in its most sustainable packaging ever. It is a symbol of all that we have achieved so far, and a promise that we will keep pushing ourselves to go further.”
Giulio Bergamaschi,
Global Brand President of Biotherm
Follow Giulio Bergamaschi on LinkedIn
A pioneering solution for the plastic problem
Carbios’ biorecycling technology in a few key steps:
1) PET waste plastics are crushed and placed in a reactor.
2) Water and enzyme are added to this mixture. Enzyme acts as a catalyst to breakdown PET into its original building blocks. This reaction of
depolymerization only needs a few hours and requires limited heat, no pressure or solvent.
3) The monomers are purified to eliminate impurities.
4) The monomers are turned into plastic pellets by PET producers in their existing facilities to make 100% recycled PET equivalent to virgin PET plastic.
This new recycled plastic can be used in any of its original applications (bottles, packaging, fibers) without a loss in quality.
The breakthrough enzymatic process can break down 90% of plastic in 10 hours and 97% in 16 hours – more than 10,000 times more efficient than any biological plastic recycling trial to date.
Discover more about how we Reduce Plastic Packaging
