Microbial Technology Enables The Conversion Of Petrochemical Plastics To Biodegradable Polymers

摘要

The environmental hazards posed by nonbiodegradable petroleum-based plastics are well known and the challenge now is to reduce the amount of waste being dumped into landfills in a cost effective way while at the same time, there is also a huge need to recycle the vast amount of these materials into useful and biodegradable products.Working toward this need, researchers led by Kevin O'Connor at the University College Dublin, have developed a technology using microorganisms to convert nonbiodegradable plastics such as polystyrene (PS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and mixed plastics into a biodegradable polymers.