{"id":328,"date":"2018-04-23T09:55:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T08:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/?p=328"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T11:41:05","slug":"scientists-accidentally-create-plastic-eating-enzyme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/2018\/04\/23\/scientists-accidentally-create-plastic-eating-enzyme\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists accidentally create plastic eating enzyme"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"et_pb_section_0 et_pb_section et_section_regular et_block_section\"><div class=\"et_pb_row_0 et_pb_row et_block_row\"><div class=\"et_pb_column_0 et_pb_column et_pb_column_4_4 et-last-child et_block_column et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_0 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><p>Scientists have created a mutant enzyme that breaks down plastic drinks bottles \u2013 by accident - according to a recent article in the Guardian.<\/p>\n<p>The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles.<\/p>\n<p>The new research was spurred by the discovery in 2016 of the first bacterium that had naturally evolved to eat plastic, at a waste dump in Japan. Scientists have now revealed the detailed structure of the crucial enzyme produced by the bug. The international team then tweaked the enzyme to see how it had evolved, but tests showed they had inadvertently made the molecule even better at breaking down the PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic used for soft drink bottles.<\/p>\n<p>The mutant enzyme takes a few days to start breaking down the plastic \u2013 far faster than the centuries it takes in the oceans. But the researchers are optimistic this can be sped up even further and become a viable large-scale process.<\/p>\n<p>About 1m plastic bottles are sold each minute around the globe and, with just 14% recycled, many end up in the oceans where they have polluted even the remotest parts, harming marine life and potentially people who eat seafood. However, currently even those bottles that are recycled can only be turned into opaque fibres for clothing or carpets. The new enzyme indicates a way to recycle clear plastic bottles back into clear plastic bottles, which could slash the need to produce new plastic. The structure of the enzyme looked very similar to one evolved by many bacteria to break down cutin, a natural polymer used as a protective coating by plants. But when the team manipulated the enzyme to explore this connection, they accidentally improved its ability to eat PET.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"et_pb_text_1 et_pb_text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_module et_block_module\"><div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\"><p>From: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2018\/apr\/16\/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2018\/apr\/16\/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,23,12,24],"class_list":["post-328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-enzyme","tag-ocean","tag-plastic","tag-pollution"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13699,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328\/revisions\/13699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gecco.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}