Covestro Announces Biotechnology Plans for Sustainable Plastics
Covestro announced plans to expand its competencies in industrial biotechnology. The plastics manufacturer intends to make increasing use of microorganisms and enzymes to make its products and processes even more sustainable. The company is developing new recycling processes based on biotechnology. To this end, its biotechnology competence center has been expanded to include a publicly funded research group. Covestro is also making progress in its efforts to produce the important chemical aniline entirely from plants for the first time with the help of microorganisms.
"Biotechnology has enormous potential to produce plastics in a more environmentally friendly and efficient way," said Markus Steilemann, Ph.D., CEO of Covestro. "As an innovation-oriented company, we want to expand our capabilities in this area. In particular, we expect this to provide further stimulus for the circular economy, to which we are completely gearing our company."