Texas scientists created a protein that breaks down plastic bottles.
The team used artificial intelligence and machine learning to mutate a natural enzyme, allowing it to degrade PET plastic used in food and drink packaging and polyester fibers. In as little as 24 hours, the protein can reduce the plastic into chemicals, which can be reassembled.
Hopefully, this innovation can reduce landfill waste, and solve global pollution, by supercharging recycling on a large scale. Industries would be able to recover and reuse products at the molecular level. Furthermore, while other alternative industrial processes for breaking down plastic are energy-intensive, this requires much less energy. Best of all, the US team has already filed a patent. Production is now being scaled up to prepare for industrial applications.
Will this development bring us closer to a truly cleaner and greener planet? Let us know what you think.