An article by (UT NEWS, 2022), reveals that researchers from the University of Texas (UOT) have successfully created a plastic-eating enzyme capable of eradicating billions of tons of plastic waste. Plastic pollution directly affects millions of people’s livelihoods, food production capabilities and social well-being (UN, 2017). It is imperative that steps be taken to tackle the world’s most compelling environmental problem: billions of tons of plastic waste polluting our land and natural resources (UT NEWS, 2022). The enzyme variant developed by scientists and engineers at UOT can eliminate plastic waste that naturally takes centuries to degrade in just a matter of hours or days (UT NEWS, 2022). The enzyme degrades the plastics into smaller parts through a process known as depolymerization and then chemically puts them back together again through another process called repolymerization (UT NEWS, 2022). Although there had been ongoing research on plastic-eating enzymes, none could operate efficiently at low temperatures until now thereby making this enzyme both portable and affordable on a large industrial scale (UT NEWS, 2022). This could potentially reform the methods that leading industries use to dispose of their plastic waste (UT NEWS, 2022).
Although the article highlights the numerous advantages of this newly discovered plastic-eating enzyme, there are underlying challenges in thoroughly adopting the use of this enzyme. As of the time of writing this summary, it has been less than a year since the announcement of this newly developed enzyme. This suggests that there could be improvements or complications with this enzyme which are yet to be discovered.
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