Summary Draft 1 - Introduction on Topic : Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste

 

A group of engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin discovered a modified enzyme called FAST-PETase and tested it over 51 different types of plastic containers. It allows plastics recycling process at the molecular level by breaking down the consumed plastic molecule into small parts to reform then reuse again in just short hours to days. (Nature, Apr 2022).

The project mainly focuses on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a significant polymer found in most consumer packaging which makes up 12% of all global waste and doesn’t degrade over centuries. Through the research and machine learning model, the demonstration results reveal a huge improvement after 15 years of research on enzymes for plastic recycling. FAST-PETase ables to degrade the consumed plastics at low ambient temperature which exciting the research teams aiming for cleaning up landfills and greening high waste-producing industries at soon and near future.

Compared to traditional ways to cut down on plastics waste such as burning, landfill, or alternative industrial processes which are generally not environmentally friendly yet at a high cost, the biological solutions proven take less energy, more affordable and efficient at large industrial scale use.