The company behind the enzyme that could break down plastic is working on scaling up its operation. Carbios aims to recycle more plastic in two years.
Carbios Aims To Recycle More PET
Prof. Alain Marty and his associates at the University of Toulouse in France have redesigned LCC, or LCCICCG, for over eight years to become certified PET specialists. 2010 saw the discovery of LCC, a leaf-branch compost cutter, by Sintawee Sulaiman of the University of Osaka in Japan. LCC aids in the breakdown of plastic and the waxy coating that covers plants by bacteria.
These days, the enzyme is so effective that it can degrade the PET polymer into its component monomers, which are the chemicals needed by manufacturers to create new plastic. Professor Marty compares it to shattering a pearl necklace.
"We are using an enzyme that you can consider a molecular scissors," Marty explained. "We break down the link between the pearls, liberate the pearls and in this way, after purification, we can sell these pearls again."
Marty is the chief scientific officer of Carbios, a company with a demonstration plant in the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand.
With a sizable cylindrical reactor surrounded by additional PET plastic processing machinery, it resembles a microbrewery.
The largest machine of them all handles clothing with a lot of polyester. Approximately half of the clothing fiber produced worldwide is polyester, a type of PET plastic.
Most of these garments eventually end up in landfills or are burned, frequently in developing nations. However, the giant machine in Clermont-Ferrand offers them an afterlife by carefully tearing them apart and turning them into soft pellets.
The business is about to expand its activities dramatically. A facility in northeastern France is scheduled to operate in 2025 with the capacity to recycle 50,000 tons of PET waste annually, or two billion bottles or 300 million T-shirts.
Carbios can grow rapidly because it does not intend to become a recycler but will license its technique to other businesses. They have joined forces with major brands such as PepsiCo, L'Oréal, and Nestle. Nothing needs to change because it yields the identical chemical monomers used by plastic manufacturers.
"I'm really enthusiastic about the work that Carbios is doing because they are kind of blazing the trail if you like," said Prof Andy Pickford from the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth. "If people can see this works, then hopefully more people will buy into it."
Aside from breaking down PET, Carbios aims to expand its attention to more plastic with complex chemical structures like nylon. However, Marty thinks this might take time as it will need a different enzyme to unlock.
ALSO READ: Drinking from Plastic Bottles Could Make Us Ingest Nearly 100,000 Micro and Nanoplastics Every Year
Plastic Pollution
Plastic pollution is a serious problem worldwide. To help address the problem, England has banned single-use plastic since October.
The country decided to restrict the sale of plastic cutlery, plates, bowls, trays, balloon sticks, and other polystyrene cups and food containers to reduce plastic consumption, as most end up in the dumpster—more than 95% of those who responded to the consultation supported banning plastic plates and cutlery.
Meanwhile, some are looking for environment-friendly alternatives since plastics don't degrade quickly. Hoof fungus or tinder fungus could create ultra-lightweight and high-performance materials.
However, plastics won't be replaced by mushrooms anytime soon. The mushrooms cannot be removed from forests since doing so would hurt the environment.
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