New super-enzyme eats plastic bottles six times faster

[FfFfFfFF 58,382]

A super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two.

The super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tonnes of such clothing is either dumped in landfill or incinerated.

Plastic pollution has contaminated the whole planet, from the Arctic to the deepest oceans, and people are now known to consume and breathe microplastic particles. It is currently very difficult to break down plastic bottles into their chemical constituents in order to make new ones from old, meaning more new plastic is being created from oil each year.

The super-enzyme was engineered by linking two separate enzymes, both of which were found in the plastic-eating bug discovered at a Japanese waste site in 2016.

The super-enzyme works at room temperature, and McGeehan said combining different approaches could speed progress towards commercial use: “If we can make better, faster enzymes by linking them together and provide them to companies like Carbios, and work in partnership, we could start doing this within the next year or two.”

2018 work had determined that the structure of one enzyme, called PETase, can attack the hard, crystalline surface of plastic bottles. TIt was also found, by accident, that one mutant version worked 20% faster. The new study analysed a second enzyme also found in the Japanese bacteria that doubles the speed of the breakdown of the chemical groups liberated by the first enzyme.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/28/new-super-enzyme-eats-plastic-bottles-six-times-faster

[RAMROD 117,328]

Hope it is also safe enzyme, so it won't pollute the soil or water

[Stupid Oreo 14,669]

Kim and kylie better watch out

[vyniildisk 12,689]

so when? We need it now! Plastic is everywhere, i am sad everytime i look at my trash bags, everything is plastic or comes in plastic, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, it sneaks its way in! I know we have the ultimate choice as a consumer but as i said, is pretty much impossible to avoid. And companies can only do much. We need solutions like this right now. A bacteria that eats plastic sounds like a literal dream, but again, wouldn't the enzyme eat the plastic then poo more plastic? . 

[Chromatislaps 34,854]

16 minutes ago, Pop another one said:

Kim and kylie better watch out

no, we can just throw them in

[FFXIV WhiteMage 6,316]

While this makes recycling easier and more efficient, it still doesn’t address the main issue with plastic waste which is the “disposal”. Majority of plastic wastes are carried into the environment. The only solution for this is to find a technology for plastics (crude oil polymers) to readily biodegrade into the environment or to completely ban the usage of plastics. But the former is still non-existence and the world is not yet ready for the latter.

we are doomed 

 

[Woolfsmck 2,763]

We need enzymes that eat Trumps ...