Also: Ideonella sakaiensis, PETase, FAST-PETase, Pestalotiopsis microspora
Some microbes and their enzymes can break down plastics. Ideonella sakaiensis, found at a Japanese recycling site, digests PET bottle plastic. Scientists have engineered faster enzymes. Pestalotiopsis fungi from the Amazon can degrade polyurethane.
Readiness: lab lab studies · prototype demonstrated objects · commercial products or buildings in real use · review summaries of other studies.
Yoshida and colleagues discovered Ideonella sakaiensis, which degrades and lives on PET using the enzymes PETase and MHETase.
As reported in: Yoshida, Hiraga, Takehana et al. (2016). A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate). Science. doi:10.1126/science.aad6359
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Austin and colleagues solved the PETase structure and engineered a variant with improved activity.
Built / tested: engineered PETase
As reported in: Austin, Allen, Donohoe et al. (2018). Characterization and engineering of a plastic-degrading aromatic polyesterase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi:10.1073/pnas.1718804115
Tournier and colleagues engineered a cutinase enzyme that breaks down 90% of PET bottles in about 10 hours for recycling.
Built / tested: enzymatic PET recycling
As reported in: Tournier, Topham, Gilles et al. (2020). An engineered PET depolymerase to break down and recycle plastic bottles. Nature. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2149-4
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Lu and colleagues used machine learning to engineer FAST-PETase, which depolymerizes PET waste at moderate temperatures.
Built / tested: FAST-PETase
As reported in: Lu, Diaz, Czarnecki et al. (2022). Machine learning-aided engineering of hydrolases for PET depolymerization. Nature. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04599-z
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Russell and colleagues found endophytic fungi, including Pestalotiopsis microspora, that degrade polyester polyurethane, even without oxygen.
As reported in: Russell, Huang, Anand et al. (2011). Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. doi:10.1128/AEM.00521-11