Boosting PET recycling with higher standards for laboratory experiments

New study shows how enzymatic plastic degradation could be brought one step closer to commercialisation

29-Nov-2023 - Many enzymes promise to break down plastic. But what works well in the lab often fails on a large scale. Now a new study by Gert Weber, HZB, Uwe Bornscheuer, University of Greifswald, and Alain Marty, Chief Scientific Officer of Carbios, shows how raising the bar for laboratory experiments could ...

A taste for plastic

Discovered for the first time: New deep-sea enzyme breaks down PET plastic

27-Sep-2023 - Plastic pollution is increasingly affecting the health of coasts and oceans. One well-known problem is plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. A new study involving scientists from Professor Ruth Schmitz-Streit's research group at Kiel University has shown for the first ...

New findings on the enzyme that breaks down PET plastic

Scientists increase efficiency: Start-up company in preparation

13-Apr-2023 - One of the most widely used plastics in the world is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET for short. It is everywhere in our daily lives in the form of reusable PET drinks bottles. At the end of the lifecycle of a product containing PET, the environmentally friendly reuse of the PET components ...

How nanoplastics can influence metabolism

13-Mar-2023 - PET, the plastic used to make bottles, for example, is ubiquitous in our natural environment. In a joint study, scientists from Leipzig University and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) investigated the negative effects that tiny plastic PET particles can have on the metabolism ...

Thrifty trick for bacterial plastic upcycling

Implementation of a newly discovered metabolic pathway increases the CO2 efficiency of PET-utilizing bacteria

13-Feb-2023 - Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Marburg have developed a more efficient, carbon dioxide-conserving route to upcycle ethylene glycol, a constituent of the plastic PET. They enhanced the metabolism of the bacterium Pseudomonas putida with a novel route taken from marine microbes, ...

Recycled PET bottles are turned into adhesive tapes

tesa develops a new packaging tape with backing material made from recycled post-consumer PET

12-Sep-2022 - tesa is launching another new, innovative packaging tape. The new tesa® 60412 includes a backing with 70% recycled (PCR) PET and a water-based acrylic adhesive system. The company is thus expanding its product portfolio of high-performance packaging tapes, which are partly made from recycled ...

Surface imaging technique illuminates potential improvements in plastics production

DESY's free-electron laser FLASH shows chemical changes in surfaces

24-Aug-2022 - Consider the humble plastic food wrapper. It may seem like a simple clear film that wraps a loaf of bread or fruit gummies, but these films are less simply composed as it seems.Each individual layer must be chemically treated so that it adheres well to the next. In their efforts to adapt an ...

Microplastic pollution in the Northeast Atlantic: First long-term record from deep water layers of the open ocean

The most common plastic materials were polyethylene and PVC

06-Jul-2022 - Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde (IOW) for the first time analysed a long-term sample series on microplastic pollution in the Northeast Atlantic from 2000 m water depth with respect to number, size, mass, material and possible origin of the particles. ...

Newly discovered enzyme breaks down PET plastic in record time

Research finding could help make biological recycling more commercially viable

18-May-2022 - Plastic bottles, punnets, wrap – such lightweight packaging made of PET plastic becomes a problem if it is not recycled. Scientists at Leipzig University have now discovered a highly efficient enzyme that degrades PET in record time. The enzyme PHL7, which the researchers found in a compost heap ...

Microplastics: A Trojan Horse for Metals

Study shows that microplastics can serve as a transport vehicle for metals in the environment

11-Aug-2021 - The fact that microplastics can accumulate organic pollutants from the environment and transport them has been known for some time. What is new, however, is that metals can also be transported in this manner. In addition, the smaller the particles, the greater the metal accumulation on the ...