Friday, 29 April 2022

Environment

Plastic Eaters

Chemical engineers in Texas say they have developed a new enzyme variant that can break down plastic in just hours or days, compared to the centuries it takes to degrade in nature.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin say this could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste and bring about true recycling of plastic. Globally, less than 10% of all plastic has been recycled. Developed through machine learning, the FAST-PETase enzyme was found to break down 51 different types of consumer plastic containers, five different polyester fibers and fabrics, as well as water bottles. The team plans to scale up the production for industrial use and to experiment with spreading the enzyme across polluted sites.



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