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Engineering a plastic-eating enzyme - C C - Apr 17, 2018

http://uopnews.port.ac.uk/2018/04/16/engineering-a-plastic-eating-enzyme/

EXCERPT: Scientists have engineered an enzyme which can digest some of our most commonly polluting plastics, providing a potential solution to one of the world’s biggest environmental problems. The discovery could result in a recycling solution for millions of tonnes of plastic bottles, made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, which currently persists for hundreds of years in the environment. [...] Professor McGeehan [...] said: “Few could have predicted that since plastics became popular in the 1960s huge plastic waste patches would be found floating in oceans, or washed up on once pristine beaches all over the world. “We can all play a significant part in dealing with the plastic problem, but the scientific community who ultimately created these ‘wonder-materials’, must now use all the technology at their disposal to develop real solutions.”

MORE: http://uopnews.port.ac.uk/2018/04/16/engineering-a-plastic-eating-enzyme/