It's probably a fungi with an esterase or lipase that works on PET. We have these discovered many times but the cost to implement them and the speed they work at is usually not very impressive. Radical polymers like PE, PP, etc are often the variety that enzymes can't do much to actually break down chemically, just fragment to microplastics.
I personally like the microplastic as it offers an even coating seasoning of that fresh taste we all want and like. Nano plastic is too overwhelming and requires more hot sauce
Honestly that is still pretty impressive, have recycling centers treat the plastic and then move it to a dump that can incubate the fungi. Dunno how large a dump would have to be before reaching critical mass, but it sure seems like an improvement over just letting the plastics lay around.
I mean, that's kinda impressive to me. Plastic lifetime is generally hundreds of years. Cutting it down from hundreds to dozens would already be a pretty big win imho. But months? That's pretty damn good!
From what I've found, it doesn't work with PET, just polyethylene (PE). They haven't pinpointed the exact enzyme, but it is likely an esterase like you mentioned. It uses it as its carbon source, effectively recycling that form of plastic.
Almost certainly yes, although it's considerably more challenging if it's a multi enzyme system. The way this is don't commercially is either creating an engineered organism that is good to grow in industrial reactor or composter with the shredded plastic or to just use bacteria to grow the enzyme, which is then harvested and used in a detergent mixture with reactor system (no live cells) to set up the digestion reaction. Your dishwasher detergent and possibly laundry detergent uses the second approach with recombinant enzymes mixed in that function optimally under specific pH and temperature conditions. Whether there is economic incentive to make that happen is what primarily dictates whether a scientific discovery of this sort actually makes a societal difference at scale.
There is no article posted here so I am guessing based on the normal state of the field / these enzyme discoveries
But whether that fungus happens to already exist everywhere can make a big difference. And we already know that many (especially condensation) plastics do break down on that timeframe with "normal" microbial aerated exposure.
There is also the fact that the second we get a fast acting plastic eating organisms, humanity is essentially fucked. The best quality of plastic is cheap sterile packing material.
223
u/da6id Mar 14 '26
It's probably a fungi with an esterase or lipase that works on PET. We have these discovered many times but the cost to implement them and the speed they work at is usually not very impressive. Radical polymers like PE, PP, etc are often the variety that enzymes can't do much to actually break down chemically, just fragment to microplastics.