Makeup giant L’Oréal has taken a minority stake in bio-industrial solutions company, Carbios, which works to reinvent the lifecycle of plastic and textile polymers.
L’Oréal’s corporate venture capital fund, BOLD Business Opportunities, proceeded with the capital raising to finance the project of biorecycling of plastics and polyester fibers in PET plastic.
The skincare company said Carbios’ new technology can recycle much broader PET plastics and polyester fibers feedstock compared to other recycling technologies. Recycled PET that are similar to virgin PET are used for bottles and other types of packaging.
“This participation demonstrates our support of new sustainable development technologies, in line with our commitment that by 2025, 100% of our packaging will be recycled, recyclable or compostable, and more specifically, 50 per cent of the plastic used in our packaging will be recycled or bio-sourced. Carbios is developing a pioneering plastic recycling technology, based on both circular economy principles and biotechnologies, and we are proud to support them in their development,” said Barbara Lavernos, executive vice-president operations of L’Oréal.
In 2017, Carbios and L’Oréal founded a consortium that was joined onboard by other FMCG giants including Nestlé Waters, PepsiCo and Suntory Beverage & Food Europe.
The multinationals aims to support the circular plastics economy using Carbios’ recycling technology. BOLD Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development is a corporate venture capital fund that invests in companies in marketing, R&I, digital, retail, communication, startups, supply chain and packaging.
