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Scientists improve enzyme that eats plastic bottles

Image: Ricardo Bernardo, Plastic water bottles, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic
Image: Ricardo Bernardo, Plastic water bottles, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

Scientists have unintentionally created a variant of a bacterial enzyme that is 20% better than the original at breaking down polyethylene terephthalate, commonly used to make plastic bottles. The researchers were investigating the properties of a bacterium that has naturally evolved to digest plastic.

Read the full story here. See also the Foodsource chapter Food systems and contributions to other environmental problems.

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