CARBIOS and L’OCCITANE release 100% recycled PET bottles for luxury beauty products

FRANCE – CARBIOS has joined forces with renowned cosmetics brand L’OCCITANE en Provence and Pinard Beauty Pack to pioneer a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle made entirely from the enzymatic depolymerization process.

This innovative process begins at CARBIOS’ industrial demonstrator in Clermont-Ferrand, where hard-to-recycle waste such as colored bottles, multilayer trays, and mechanical recycling residues are collected, sorted, and prepared.

The PET waste is depolymerized using CARBIOS’ biorecycling technology, which breaks it down into its original monomers, PTA and MEG.

These monomers are then repolymerized into new, fully recycled PET resins within European supply chains.

Pinard Beauty Pack subsequently blow-moulds these resins into bottles according to L’Occitane’s specifications at its facility in Oyonnax. L’Occitane then fills these bottles with shower oil at its plant in Manosque.

By utilizing the monomers within Europe, CARBIOS’ technology reduces environmental impact and strengthens local supply chains.

This approach is believed to improve the life cycle analysis (LCA) of each product, offering a more sustainable solution.

Enzymatically recycled plastic is reported to reduce CO2 emissions by 57% and avoid 1.3 tonnes of oil for every tonne of recycled PET produced.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Material Circularity Indicator suggests that enzymatic recycling is five times more circular than conventional recycling processes.

CARBIOS’ ‘highly selective’ enzyme can handle colored, multilayer, and textile waste that conventional methods cannot recycle.

The PTA and MEG monomers it produces are also suitable for creating food-safe PET packaging with qualities identical to petroleum-based plastics.

CARBIOS plans to replicate its partnership with L’Occitane en Provence and Pinard Beauty Pack globally to meet the needs of international brands.

CARBIOS CEO Emmanuel Ladent commented, “Carbios’ innovation accelerates the transition to a circular economy by offering an alternative to petro-sourced PET and a circular PET recycling solution that reduces CO2 emissions by 57%.

All players in the value chain must collaborate for an efficient recycling sector. The long-term partnership between Carbios and L’Occitane demonstrates a shared desire to promote more responsible consumption. The bottle produced with L’Occitane and Pinard illustrates the industry’s progress.”

David Bayard, R&D Packaging Director at L’Occitane, added, “At L’Occitane en Provence, we’re Cultivators of Change, and we’re proud to be part of this forward-looking industry. Currently, just over 50% of our PET material is recycled.

Thanks to CARBIOS and depolymerization technologies, we aim to reach 100% by 2027 for all our retail bottles.”

Paolo Coelho, Plant Director at Pinard Beauty Pack, stated, “At Pinard, we are delighted to have reached this new milestone and to be associated with the production of L’Occitane en Provence’s first bottle using Carbios’ revolutionary technology.

“This bottle was blow-moulded under the same conditions and with the same parameters as virgin or mechanically recycled PET, a considerable advantage for deploying Carbios’ technology. We’re seeing strong demand for high-quality recycled PET for the same applications as virgin PET.”

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