Carbios and Wankai New Materials have signed a definitive agreement establishing a strategic partnership for the large-scale deployment of Carbios’ PET biorecycling technology in Asia, with the first step being the construction of a PET biorecycling plant in China.
The two companies have signed the shareholders’ agreement in December 2025 for their joint venture to construct and operate the ‘first’ PET biorecycling plant in China, with a reported processing capacity of 50,000 tonnes of PET waste.
Wankai will be the majority shareholder of the company with a 70% stake, while Carbios will hold the remaining 30%. The financing of the plant’s construction, estimated at €115 million, will be covered 30% by equity and 70% by debt, with all debt guaranteed by Wankai.
The plant will be located in Haining (Zhejiang province) on a site provided by Wankai, already equipped with infrastructure such as equipment and waste treatment, reducing the investment cost. Construction is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2026, with commissioning targeted by the first quarter of 2027.
The two companies hope to build and operate several PET biorecycling plants in Asia. Carbios says it has agreed to exclusively license its PET depolymerization technology in Asia to Wankai for a period of three years, subject to signing licenses with the latter for at least 100 kt per year of additional capacity. This term will be extended in five-year increments if additional licenses for at least 200 kt per year of extra capacity are signed.
In May this year, Carbios announced the signing of its first multi-year offtake contracts with L’Oréal and L’Occitane en Provence for biorecycled r-PET from its future commercial plant in Longlaville, France. With the signing of these contracts, Carbios said it had achieved its objective to sign its first contracts in the first half of 2025.
The previous month, Reichmuth Infrastructure (Reichmuth & Co) revealed it would be financing the construction of a PET recycling plant in the north-west of England, in cooperation with developer and operator Enviroo. Enviroo claims to have identified a process that separates PET plastic from other waste components, resulting in a recycled PET granulate that can be used in direct food contact packaging.
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