CARBIOS, (Euronext Growth Paris : ALCRB), announces the publication of a new article entitled “An engineered enzyme embedded into PLA to make self-biodegradable plastic” in Nature, widely regarded as the most influential scientific journal, and co-authored with its longstanding collaborator, the Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI).

Enzyme-embedded PLA plastic can fully and rapidly degrade in home-compost or methanization conditions. The article describes the optimization process used to achieve an engineered enzyme able to withstand the 170°C temperature required to introduce it in molten state PLA during the plastic production process. The new enzyme-embedded material is proven to fully distintegrate and biodegrade at a much faster rate than the 26-week home-compost certification requirement and is also shown to help produce more biomethane, another source of waste recovery. Moreover, the material remains intact over long-term storage, the enzyme only being activated under composting or methanization conditions, ensuring compatibility with commercial PLA-based applications, for example, flexible packaging (such as sauce packets and wrappers) and short-life items (such as food containers, yogurt pots and coffee capsules).