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.

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

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

TABLE
THEMES
Environmental policy Food waste/surplus food Green economy/alternative economic models Supply chains
PUBLISHED
30 Apr 2018
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In October 2024, TABLE brought together a diverse range of stakeholders across the food system with the aim of exploring how they envisaged a better food future, and what system transformations would be needed to get there. The participants included non-governmental and civil society organisations, policymakers, philanthropists, community leaders, and academics from diverse disciplines. Over the course of the workshop, they together discussed, developed and refined different visions for the future of the food system based on three initially conceived visions: market-led, state-led, and bottom-up. This report synthesises the workshop methods and dialogue process, the discussions participants had and the areas of agreement that emerged. https://www.doi.org/10.56661/421fa6df
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