Engineers Create an Enzyme That Breaks Down Plastic Waste in Hours, Not Decades

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

As you've no doubt noticed, there's a worryingly large amount of plastic pollution, and scientists are working hard to find ways to use plastic without causing so much long-term damage to the environment around us.

A new study outlines the use of a specially created enzyme variant that vastly reduces the time it takes to break down the components of plastics.

We could even use the enzyme variant to clean up sites contaminated by plastic pollution, say the team that developed it.

In tests, products made from the polymer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) were broken down in a week and, in some cases, 24 hours – these are products that can take centuries to degrade properly in natural conditions.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/engineers-create-an-enzyme-that-breaks-down-plastic-waste-in-hours-not-decades/ar-AAWNszV

[JudyM]

2. Caught this story on CA investigating big oil for deceiving the public on plastic's recyclability

"For more than half a century, the plastics industry has engaged in an aggressive campaign to deceive the public, perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis," Bonta said. "The truth is: The vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled."

The announcement cited NPR and the PBS series Frontline's 2020 investigation into the oil and gas industry which uncovered documents showing top officials knew that recycling plastic was unlikely to work but spent tens of millions of dollars telling the public the opposite. Starting in the 1980s, the industry launched dozens of ads, nonprofits, and campaigns touting the benefits of recycling plastic – and placing the responsibility on consumers – even as their own documents warned that recycling was "infeasible" and that there was "serious doubt" that plastic recycling "can ever be made viable on an economic basis," the investigation found.

https://www.npr.org/2022/04/28/1095305949/california-is-investigating-big-oil-for-allegedly-misleading-the-public-on-recyc

Here’s hoping for progress on both fronts.