![]() The only solution to this burgeoning problem, the Pew report concludes, is a massive $600 billion overhaul of the world’s plastic system that reuses and recycles plastic in a circular economy, along with other, smaller-scale changes, including bioplastics. The study said that if the world continues on its current course of skyrocketing plastic consumption, the amount of plastic waste being produced will triple by 2040. Indeed, a recent study in the journal Science, authored by the researchers associated with the Pew report, estimated that some 11 million metric tons of plastic now find their way into the oceans each year - 3 million more than previous estimates. ![]() A just-released two-year study called Breaking the Plastic Wave by Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, found that despite the efforts of industry, governments, and NGOs, the plastic problem is getting much worse. Instead, many experts believe the solution to plastic waste mainly lies not in developing better bioplastics, but in overhauling the world’s economy to recycle far-greater quantities of plastic than currently are being reused. “Nobody could engineer something like that, not even nature.” “The concept that we could use it, throw it away, and it doesn’t matter where you throw it, and it’s going to safely disappear, that does not exist,” said Ramani Narayan, a professor at the School of Packaging at Michigan State University. But despite a growing push in recent years to come up with an organic plastic that satisfies product needs and, after use, becomes part of nature again, making bioplastics that are both cheap and effective has posed a major challenge. Though companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are under public pressure to solve the problem of plastic pollution, they have so far been unable to find a material or method as cheap and effective as single-use plastic.īioplastics, which make up part of Coke’s PlantBottle, have been touted as an important solution to the world’s plastic pollution problem. The company says that PlantBottle packaging now accounts for nearly a third of its North American bottle volume and seven percent globally.ĭoes the PlantBottle mean the giant soft drink company has cracked one of the world’s most serious environmental problems, the choking of the world with oil-based plastics that never completely break down and disappear? Hardly. They used the modified enzyme to break down a tonne of waste plastic bottles, which were 90% degraded within 10 hours.Coca-Cola calls it the PlantBottle - a new kind of recyclable plastic container, 30 percent of which is made from sugar cane and other plants, with the remaining 70 percent made from traditional oil-based plastic. ![]() The Saint-Beauzire based team also managed to make the process stable at 72☌ (161.6☏), close to the perfect temperature for fast degradation. ![]() We did not see any inhibition of the enzyme by colorants, pigments, isophthalic acid, carbon black, titanium dioxide, other polymers,” Marty said. “This new process can depolymerize any kind of PET – transparent, colored, opaque, amorphous as well as crystalline, fibers – into any kind of PET product. Enzyme LCC, described in a publication in 2012, appeared to be a good starting point to optimize the performance in terms of thermostability and activity.”īut where previous attempts to repurpose PETs that had had chemicals added to give specific characteristics such as rigidity or flexibility and color had been less than successful, this procedure was successful. “We tested all the enzymes described from scientific literature and screened thousands of microorganisms from PET polluted environments. Professor Alain Marty, from the Université de Toulouse, is the leader of the Carbios team CARBIOS
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