Recycling isn’t as guilt-free as it seems. Only about 30% of the
plastic that goes into soda bottles gets turned into new plastic, and it
often ends up as a lower strength version. Now, researchers report
they’ve engineered an enzyme that can convert 90% of that same plastic
back to its pristine starting materials. Work is underway to scale up
the technology and open a demonstration plant next year.
“This is a huge step forward,” says John McGeehan, who directs the
center for enzyme innovation at the University of Portsmouth and who was
not involved with the work.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the world’s most commonly
used plastics, with some 70 million tons produced annually. PET bottles
are already recycled in many places. But the current approach has
problems. For starters, recycling companies typically end up with a
broad mix of different colors of the plastic. They then use high
temperatures to melt those down, producing a gray or black plastic
starting material that few companies want to use to package their
products.
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