Transcript:
In our daily lives, we are constantly using plastics to pack up groceries, in medicine such as syringes, and in food packing just to name a few. While it has become an important part of our lives, lately, plastic has been causing an environmental uproar.
Plastic is synthetically created from oil, coal, and natural gas and many different types of plastic are created using different methods. Because it is a man-made product, it is not naturally degraded. Degradation time can take years to centuries and the increasing waste has been found in oceans and on land and thereby altering the ecosystem. Because it is not a natural product, bacteria cannot easily degrade plastic, but back in the 1980s, researchers began to explore ways of creating biodegradable plastic that bacteria can eat away at, but it won’t address the current plastic waste.
It wasn’t until recently, in 2016, Japanese researchers described a new bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis, found in a Japanese waste dump and shown to use one form of plastic, known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a energy source for its growth. PET plastic is used to make soda bottles, food packaging, and event carpet and sailboat sails, However, the neat thing is that it has never been shown that PET plastic already produced could be used by a single organism.
Authors on a April 2018 paper altered the bacteria to study the specific enzymes that can degrade PET and unintentionally made the enzyme 20% more efficient in PET degradation. The enzyme has the capability to degrade PET to its original product allowing it to be used again to make new soda bottles and products. Currently, bottles are recycled and have a very limited reusability. The main author said this discovery is exciting because it allows for scientists to “further improve these enzymes, moving us closer to a recycling solution for the ever-growing mountain of discarded plastics.”
Further investigation into the role of the enzyme and how bacteria can be utilized in an industrial setting is still needed. The technology is available and the concept is being used in the case of biofuels and bio-detergents. Enzymes on their own are non-toxic, biodegradable, and can be produced in large quantities.
While the research is exciting, further considerations in terms of safety and large-scale usage is critical. When solving one environmental crisis, we don’t want to create another problem inadvertently. We need to ensure control of the bacteria as well as monitoring these recycling facilities to make sure they are not causing more greenhouse gas release. But in the coming years, we could see less plastic waste in our oceans and landfills. We can develop a healthier world where turtles and fishes are not getting stuck in plastic soda holders and whales are not dying of mass plastic engulfment.
