Luminy® PLA is recyclable
Rethinking recycling bioplastics
Products Recyclable
Keeping materials in the recycling loop
A product’s end-of-life can mark the beginning of a new life cycle. This is the core principle of a circular economy, where materials are continuously reused, reducing waste and preventing it from ending up in landfills.
Innovative biobased materials like Luminy® PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) play a key role in keeping resources in the recycling loop. Luminy® PLA can be transformed back into feedstock through mechanical and advanced recycling methods, resulting in Luminy® rPLA, which retains the same certified characteristics as the original. This enables endless product life cycles, contributing to a truly circular plastic economy.
The need to rethink recycling has never been more urgent. If current plastic production and waste management trends continue, an estimated 12,000 million tonnes of plastic waste could end up in landfills, oceans, and rivers by 2050 (Geyer, Jambeck, & Law, 2017). To prevent this, we must focus on reducing, reusing, and recycling materials, and advancing innovations in plastic end-of-life solutions.
By choosing biobased plastics like Luminy® PLA, we can shift away from fossil carbon and embrace sustainable, biobased resources, promoting a healthier consumer cycle and helping create a waste-free future.
Reducing environmental impact with recycled Luminy® PLA
Choosing Luminy® PLA with recycled content (rPLA) significantly reduces environmental impact and supports a more circular plastics economy.
Luminy® 30% rPLA is carbon neutral. Luminy® 100% rPLA has a negative carbon footprint of –0.65 kg CO₂ eq/kg, meaning it stores more atmospheric carbon than it emits during production. Accompanying our already environmentally friendly virgin PLA that has a carbon footprint of 0.29 kg CO₂ eq/kg, Luminy® rPLA is another way we are providing low carbon solutions for our partners.
By extending the storage of biogenic carbon and reducing dependence on virgin resources, Luminy® rPLA helps your brand move closer to climate targets, regulatory compliance, and true circularity—without compromising performance.
Read the Luminy® PLA Life Cycle Assessment
A vision for circularity
At TotalEnergies Corbion, we champion PLA recycling as a key part of the circular economy. By partnering with chemical and mechanical recyclers, we are working to ensure Luminy® PLA remains a valuable resource throughout its life cycle.
Our white paper, Stay in the Cycle: Rethinking Recycling with PLA Bioplastics, explores how chemical recycling of PLA via hydrolysis enables closed-loop PLA recycling, producing high-quality, food-contact-approved recycled PLA resin.Both mechanical recycling and advanced technologies efficiently turn PLA back into PLA, extending its lifecycle. Unlike traditional plastics, recycling biobased PLA helps store biogenic carbon, delaying its release and reducing environmental impact.
By prioritizing sustainable PLA waste management, we cut emissions linked to virgin PLA manufacturing, lowering Global Warming Potential (GWP) and promoting a more sustainable plastic economy.
Enhance sustainability with 30% and 100% recycled Luminy® PLA
Recycled Luminy® PLA grades, or as we call it rPLA, are commercially available. Certified by SCS Global Services, Luminy® rPLA can reduce your product’s carbon footprint without compromising on look, functionality, or durability.
The recycled content is sourced from a mix of post- and pre-consumer recycled material and allocated via a mass balance method. Luminy® rPLA grades can be used in any place virgin PLA is used, including food contact applications.
Interested in Luminy® PLA? Contact our team to get started!
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, Luminy® PLA is fully recyclable through both mechanical and advanced recycling (depolymerization) methods.
We actively work with customers to create closed-loop systems, collecting and recycling PLA products from events, hotels, sports competitions, and post-industrial waste streams. Recycled Luminy® PLA grades (rPLA) are also available with 20%, 30%, and 100% allocated recycled content.
Thanks to progressions in Near Infrared (NIR) technology, density separation, AI, and robotics systems in waste management, PLA can be easily separated from other types of polymers on the sorting line, including, among others, PET, PS, and HDPE. Purities of 97% have been obtained using NIR sorting of PLA, higher than most traditional plastics.*
*Technical quality of rPET. Technical quality of rPET that can be obtained from Dutch PET bottles that have been collected, sorted, and mechanically recycled, Wageningen University & Research (2016) https://edepot.wur.nl/392306
TotalEnergies Corbion takes the challenge of plastic pollution—on land and in waterways—extremely seriously. While the most effective long‑term solutions depend on smarter product design, better consumer education, and well‑functioning waste‑management systems, the compostability and biodegradability of Luminy® PLA can provide meaningful support.
A recent meta‑study by HYDRA Marine Sciences shows that, due to its inherent material characteristics—specifically its hydrolysis‑driven degradation process—PLA does not form persistent microplastics when it ends up in the environment. Unlike conventional, non‑biodegradable plastics that accumulate indefinitely as micro‑ and nanoplastics, PLA breaks down when exposed to moisture and water, preventing long‑lasting pollution.
No material should ever be released into the environment, and no certification should be seen as a license to litter. However, the same properties that make PLA compostable also ensure that, if it does escape waste‑management systems, its long‑term environmental impact is significantly lower than that of traditional plastics.
Read the Meta-Study on the environmental fate of PLA: https://www.hydramarinesciences.com/news-harris/meta-study-on-environmental-fate-of-pla
Throughout our communications, unless otherwise specified, the terms ‘biobased’ and ‘compostable’ or ‘biodegradable’ refer to EN16785-1 and EN13432 standards respectively.
Luminy® PLA is made from sugarcane, an annually renewable resource, while conventional plastics are made from non-renewable resources like oil and gas. The use of biobased materials is important for conserving our resources
The global warming potential of Luminy® PLA is also significantly lower than conventional polastics like PET, PE, and PP.
According to a recent study by Chaire CoPack, in partnership with AgroParisTech and the University of Montpellier, the certified EN13432 compostable bioplastics, including Luminy® PLA, fully biodegrade in industrial composting facilities. The study also found that the bioplastics positively affected the composting yield, did not have any negative consequences on the agronomic quality of the final compost, and did not generate ecotoxicity to higher plants, earthworms, and daphnia.
According to a recent meta-study by HYDRA Marine Sciences, commissioned by Holland Bioplastics, PLA fully hydrolyzes in water or humid conditions, leaving no persistent nano- or microplastics behind. This confirms PLA as an environmentally responsible material that does not contribute to long-term plastic pollution.
TotalEnergies Corbion sources its sugarcane through Corbion, which works directly with farmers in Thailand. These farmers must adhere to the Corbion Sugarcane Code—a rigorous set of standards that we helped develop to ensure ethical business practices, human and labor rights, and environmental protection. Luminy® PLA made with sugar certified by Bonsucro is also available upon request.
As a joint venture, we have access to the expertise and resources of both TotalEnergies and Corbion, strengthening our commitment to responsible sourcing.
Read more at: www.corbion.com/Sustainability/Preserving-what-matters/Responsible-sourcing
Producing 1 kg of Luminy® PLA requires 1.75 m² of land and 0.6 m³ of water, the majority of which comes from rainfall. The sugarcane used for Luminy® PLA is grown in regions with minimal water stress and occupies only 0.8% of Thailand’s arable land annually.
We believe in transparency and understanding our impact. Today, the entire bioplastics industry uses just 0.0015% of global arable land. Even if all plastics were replaced with Luminy® PLA, it would require only 1.23% of global arable land—small enough to not compete with food supply.
While land use is always a factor we consider, we believe the benefits are significant: a 75% lower carbon footprint than conventional plastics and 1.83 kg of CO₂ absorbed by the sugarcane for every kilogram of Luminy® PLA produced. It’s a step toward a more sustainable future.
