Need some potentially good news? UTexas team develops enzyme that breaks down plastic in hours rather than centuries
Posted by
prayformojo (aka mayhem)
May 3 '22, 10:50
|
Plastic waste could be a thing of the past: Engineers develop an enzyme that can break it down in hours rather than centuries if left alone
Billions of tons of plastic waste sits in landfills and waterways around the world
Of all of the plastic produced around the world 10 per cent has been recycled
One of the cleanest and most efficient ways to recycle plastic is with an enzyme
Finding a solution that works quickly and at lower temperature has proved tough
Texas engineers used machine learning to force an enzyme to adapt as needed
It is able to operate as low as 86F and can break down plastic in under 24 hours
Plastic waste dumped in landfill could be cleared sooner than expected, after engineers developed an enzyme that can break it down in just a few hours.
Millions of tons of plastic is left abandoned every year, pilling up in landfills and pollution the land and waterways - typically taking centuries to degrade.
A team from the University of Texas in Austin created a new enzyme variant that can supercharge recycling on a large scale, reducing the impact of plastic pollution.
The work focusing on PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which is a polymer found in most consumer plastic including bottles, packaging and some textiles.
The enzyme was able to complete a 'circular process' of breaking down the plastic into smaller parts and chemically putting it back together in as little as 24 hours.
They've called it FAST-PETase (functional, active, stable, and tolerant PETase), developed from a natural PETase that allows bacteria to degrade and modify plastic.
|
Responses:
|
