Bye, Pollution Crisis! Scientists Accidentally Created Revolutional Enzyme that Eats Plastic
Scientists accidentally mutated an enzyme found in a recycling facility in Japan several years ago. The resulting enzyme can digest some of the most commonly polluting forms of plastic.
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Revolution in pollution
Scientists at the University of Portsmouth and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have created a mutant enzyme that is able to “eat” plastic and could help tackle the world’s pollution problem by accident.
“Serendipity often plays a significant role in fundamental scientific research and our discovery here is no exception,” said Prof John McGeehan, at the University of Portsmouth, UK, who led the research.
The substance is based on an enzyme – a “biological catalyst” – first produced by bacteria living in a Japanese recycling centre that researchers suggested had evolved it in order to eat plastic.
The international team tweaked the enzyme to see how it had evolved, but tests showed they had inadvertently made the molecule even better.
“What actually turned out was we improved the enzyme, which was a bit of a shock,” said Prof McGeehan. “It’s great and a real finding.”
Why do we need to fight with plastic?
The main problem with plastic bottles is that they are made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which lingers in the environment for hundreds of years. The new enzyme can”digest” some of the planet’s most commonly polluting plastics so some have called a discovery a “recycling solution”.
“What we are hoping to do is use this enzyme to turn this plastic back into its original components, so we can literally recycle it back to plastic,” said McGeehan. “It means we won’t need to dig up any more oil and, fundamentally, it should reduce the amount of plastic in the environment.”
The amount of trash in the Pacific Ocean is growing every day. Now it is three times the size of France – 1.6 M km2.
Around 20% of the trash is debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami. 8% of the mass is microplastics and pieces smaller than 5 millimeters.
2 aircraft surveys and 30 vessels were used to explore the debris field.
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