The bacterium I. sakaiensis has been eating away at the 300 million tons of plastic humanity tosses in the trash each year, but it takes the bug weeks to finish a meal.
Bioscientists at the Kyoto Institute of Technology engineered a better bug, one that breaks down plastic six times faster than its ancestors.
The bacterium breaks down PET, one of the most commonly used plastics, using an enzyme called PETase. Researchers at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Portsmouth re-engineered the enzyme in 2018 to make it work about 20 percent faster.
The Japanese team has chemically connected PETase with MHETase, a similar enzyme, and found that the new, conjoined “super-enzyme” sped the bacterium’s digestion of plastic sixfold.
The new super-enzyme breaks down plastic into its component chemicals, ready for re-use as part of an infinite recycling loop.
TRENDPOST: More and more businesses are shunning virgin plastic as they respond to consumers’ demands for eco-friendly corporate practices. The new enzyme could help meet manufacturer’s soaring demand for recycled plastic.
