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Niagara Bottling to test enzymatic PET recycling at scale. Get Recycling Bins Rhea's Factory and Niagara Bottling will test RheaCycle enzymatic PET recycling under industrial conditions at Niagara's Vernon, California facility, with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory independently evaluating the system's performance. Discover more Scrap buying service Metal price charts Niagara Bottling to test enzymatic PET recycling at industrial scale. Rhea's Factory and Niagara Bottling will validate an enzymatic PET recycling system under industrial operating conditions at Niagara's Vernon, California facility, with performance independently assessed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Published October 16, 2026 Key points. * Rhea's Factory and Niagara Bottling were selected for the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Technology Validation program. * RheaCycle will be tested under industrial conditions at Niagara's PET recycling facility in Vernon, California. * The DOE program selected nine projects nationwide for a combined $3 million in funding. * The process uses AI-designed enzymes to break PET into purified terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. * Installation and commissioning are expected to take up to six months before the validation period begins. SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Rhea's Factory and Niagara Bottling LLC are preparing to test an enzyme-based PET recycling technology under industrial operating conditions at Niagara's recycling facility in Vernon, California. Rhea's Factory, a biotechnology company developing enzymatic PET recycling, and Niagara Bottling, a family-owned U.S. water and beverage manufacturer, were selected for the U.S. Department of Energy's Industrial Technology Validation (ITV) program, administered by DOE's Industrial Technologies Office. The project will validate RheaCycle, Rhea's Factory's enzymatic depolymerization platform, with performance independently measured and verified by experts from DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Nine projects selected for DOE validation program. DOE's ITV program selected nine projects nationwide for a combined $3 million in funding. Each project pairs a technology developer with an industrial host site where the technology is installed and operated under real production conditions. "A major barrier hindering industrial adoption of many promising technologies is that end users lack reliable and unbiased information about their performance," said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson. "ITV is the cornerstone program that addresses this barrier head on." At the Vernon facility, RheaCycle combines AI-designed enzymes with a proprietary downstream separation process to break PET into its two primary building blocks: purified terephthalic acid, or TPA, and ethylene glycol, or EG. Because the enzymes act selectively on PET, the process is designed to accept a range of post-consumer feedstocks, including thermoforms, contaminated PET, residual streams from existing recycling lines and polyester textiles. The recovered monomers are designed to be repolymerized into new PET, creating a potential pathway for difficult-to-recycle material to return to food-grade packaging. Industrial test will measure energy and water use. The project will validate the integrated RheaCycle system using PET streams handled at Niagara's Vernon facility, including recycling residuals, off-spec material and thermoforms. Energy efficiency is a core design metric for the system. The enzymatic depolymerization process operates at low temperature and atmospheric pressure, while the validation will independently measure energy and water consumption per kilogram of recovered monomer. "Bringing a technology like this to commercial scale takes more than good science," said Dr. Arzu Sandikci, CEO and co-founder of Rhea's Factory. "It takes a federal program willing to fund independent validation, a national laboratory willing to measure it, an industry partner like Niagara willing to host it, and a startup that has already proven the science and built the process to run at industrial scale. This project brings all four together, and that's how a new industry gets built." RheaCycle to operate alongside mechanical recycling. Niagara's involvement follows its May 2026 acquisition of the Vernon recycling and packaging facility and the rPlanet Earth brand. The facility reprocesses PET into recycled PET flakes and pellets for Niagara packaging. Get Recycling Bins The ITV project will install RheaCycle as a parallel line at the Vernon site, extending the range of PET the facility can return to food grade without modifying Niagara's existing operations. According to Rhea's Factory, the two recycling approaches are intended to complement each other. Mechanical recycling remains the preferred route for clean bottle streams, while enzymatic depolymerization provides an additional pathway for PET streams that fall outside mechanical-recycling specifications. The company said cost competitiveness has been a design requirement for RheaCycle alongside material quality and environmental performance. Site preparation underway in California. Site preparation is underway at Niagara's Vernon facility. Installation and commissioning are expected to take up to six months before the formal validation period begins. The results are expected to support Rhea's Factory's commercial development plans and future industry partnerships. Rhea's Factory, founded in 2024 and based in Berkeley, California, develops enzymatic recycling technologies for plastics and synthetic fibers, beginning with PET. Its RheaCycle platform uses artificial intelligence to design enzymes and associated processes that break plastics into their original building blocks. Niagara Bottling, founded in 1963 and headquartered in Diamond Bar, California, operates more than 50 plant locations with over 9,000 employees across the United States, Mexico, Australia and the United Kingdom. DOE's Industrial Technology Validation program is designed to assess emerging technologies under operating industrial conditions and provide independent performance data that can support future deployment decisions. 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Niagara Bottling hosts enzymatic PET recycling test. Rhea's Factory and Niagara Bottling will validate enzymatic PET recycling technology at a California facility through a $3 million DOE program. October 15, 2026 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will independently verify energy use and recovered monomer quality. A biotechnology startup's enzyme-driven approach to breaking down plastic waste is about to face its toughest test yet - on a working factory floor. Rhea's Factory, a biotechnology company developing enzymatic PET recycling, and Niagara Bottling LLC, a family-owned US water and beverage manufacturer, have been selected for the US Department of Energy's Industrial Technology Validation (ITV) program, administered by DOE's Industrial Technologies Office. The project will validate RheaCycle, Rhea's Factory's enzymatic depolymerization platform, under industrial operating conditions at Niagara's PET recycling facility in Vernon, California, with performance independently measured and verified by experts from DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Nine projects selected. DOE's ITV program selected nine projects nationwide for a combined $3 million in funding. Each project pairs a technology developer with an industrial host site that installs and operates the technology under real production conditions. "A major barrier hindering industrial adoption of many promising technologies is that end users lack reliable and unbiased information about their performance," said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson. "ITV is the cornerstone program that addresses this barrier head on." At the Vernon site, RheaCycle combines AI-designed enzymes with a proprietary downstream separation process to break PET down into its two building blocks: purified terephthalic acid, or TPA, and ethylene glycol, or EG. Because the enzymes act selectively on PET, the process accepts a wide range of post-consumer feedstocks, including thermoforms, contaminated PET, residual streams from existing recycling lines, and polyester textiles. The recovered monomers are virgin-equivalent and can be repolymerized into new PET with no loss of quality, cycle after cycle, giving these streams a direct path back into food-grade packaging. Validating integrated system. The project will validate the integrated system on the PET streams handled at the Vernon facility, including recycling residuals, off-spec material, and thermoforms, under industrial operation. Energy efficiency is a core design metric for RheaCycle: Enzymatic depolymerization runs at low temperature and atmospheric pressure, and the validation will independently measure energy and water use per kilogram of recovered monomer. "Bringing a technology like this to commercial scale takes more than good science," said Dr. Arzu Sandikci, CEO and co-founder of Rhea's Factory. "It takes a federal program willing to fund independent validation, a national laboratory willing to measure it, an industry partner like Niagara willing to host it, and a startup that has already proven the science and built the process to run at industrial scale. This project brings all four together, and that's how a new industry gets built." Recent acquisition. Niagara's role builds on a recent investment. In May 2026, Niagara acquired the Vernon recycling and packaging facility and the rPlanet Earth brand to reprocess PET into high-quality recycled PET flakes and pellets for Niagara packaging. The ITV project will install RheaCycle(TM) as a parallel line at the site, extending the range of PET the facility can return to food grade without modifying Niagara's existing operations. The two approaches are complementary, according to Rhea's Factory. Mechanical recycling remains the most efficient route for clean bottle streams, while enzymatic depolymerization creates an additional pathway for streams outside the mechanical spec, raising the share of collected PET that gets a second life and improving the economics of each ton processed. Cost has been a design requirement for RheaCycle from the start, with the platform built so that recycled PET competes on economics, as well as on quality and environmental benefits. Work begins. Site preparation is underway at Niagara's Vernon facility, with installation and commissioning expected to take up to six months before the validation period begins. The results are expected to accelerate Rhea's Factory's commercial roadmap and the partnerships already taking shape around it. Rhea's Factory, founded in 2024 and based in Berkeley, California, develops enzymatic recycling for plastics and synthetic fibers, starting with PET. Its RheaCycle platform uses artificial intelligence to design both the enzymes and the paired proprietary end-to-end processes that break down plastics into their original building blocks, aiming to turn waste streams considered unrecyclable today - from mixed and multilayer packaging to textiles - into tomorrow's materials. Niagara Bottling, founded in 1963 and headquartered in Diamond Bar, California, is a family-owned water and beverage manufacturer operating more than 50 plant locations with over 9,000 team members across the United States, Mexico, Australia, and the United Kingdom. DOE's ITV program is administered by its Industrial Technologies Office and supported by DOE national laboratories, with the goal of accelerating the deployment of high-impact technologies that optimize industrial processes, increase energy savings, and enhance the competitiveness of US industry in evolving global markets. Editor-in-chief of PlasticsToday, David Hutton is a journalist with more than 25 years of experience as an editor and writer with daily newspapers and trade publications. A Kent State University graduate, he was born in Canton, OH, and is a lifelong writer. David started his professional career as a reporter and page designer with the Parkersburg Sentinel in Parkersburg, WV. He returned to his hometown, taking a role with the Massillon Independent, where he rose to the position of managing editor. David's career next took him to October Research Corp., where he worked for trade publications in the real estate settlement services industry before returning to daily newspapers as news editor for The Times-Reporter in Dover-New Philadelphia, OH. While there, he oversaw design of the newspaper and won an Associated Press award for Best Page 1 Design. In 2012, David joined the staff of Plastics News as research analyst. He was responsible for the production of data research reports providing analysis of various segments and end markets of the plastics industry. He also produced content for the publication. In 2019, David joined Ophthalmology Times, serving as managing editor of the publication covering the latest advancements in the ophthalmology industry for physicians and clinicians. David lives in Canton, OH, with his wife, Arionne. They have three grown children, Paige, Chandler and Connor. Their "zoo" also includes two cats, a parrot, and a pug, named Freddie. An avid sports fan, David follows the Cleveland Browns, Cavaliers, and Guardians as well as the Ohio State Buckeyes. He also enjoys movies, classic rock, and reading. He enjoys sports cars, and owns a Camaro and a Corvette. Want more PlasticsToday in your search results?