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A PLASTIC EATING ENZYME? REALLY?

In Austin, at the University of Texas, researchers have discovered an enzyme that eats plastics. Yes, EATS plastics. The enzyme was originally called PETase because it could degrade polyethylene terephthalate (“PET”) which is the chemical name for polyester. We have written about the different types of plastics in our earlier articles about recycling. If you haven’t already read them, they are available on our website. Polyester, as you may know, is a type of plastic used in such products as plastic bottles and food packaging. The University of Texas researchers modified PETase to create a new enzyme called FAST-PETase which gives bacteria the ability to recycle plastic waste faster, at lower temperatures, and more efficiently. FAST-PETase not only works faster, but it also requires much less energy than it takes to burn plastic or break it down in other processes. Remember that most plastic isn’t recycled and winds up in a landfill, or even worse, in our oceans. An amazing feature of this new enzyme is that bacteria armed with FAST-PETase can break down the plastic in one day when it would otherwise take almost 500 years to break down the plastic in a landfill. ISN’T THAT AMAZING? FAST-PETase also turns the plastic into base units which are then reusable. By producing new goods without pollution and waste, reusing the products and materials, and hopefully restoring natural systems, we can begin moving toward a circular economy (at least in the plastic industry), where so much less plastic will be easily disposable and/or wasted. This could be an astronomical development when FAST-PETase is “scaled up” and becomes mass produced. We will be closely following this development.

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References:

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/plastic-eating-enzyme-can-break-down-waste-in-24-hours/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04599-z

Lu, H., Diaz, D.J., Czarnecki, N.J. et al. Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization. Nature 604, 662–667 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04599-z

Deng, B., Yue, Y., Yang, J. et al. Improving the activity and thermostability of PETase from Ideonella sakaiensis through modulating its post-translational glycan modification. Commun Biol 6, 39 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-023-04413-0

https://molecularbiosci.utexas.edu/news/research/plastic-eating-enzyme-could-eliminate-billions-tons-landfill-waste