Technology for biological degradation of plastics

The challenge

Every year, tons of PET are not recycled and are destined for landfills, dumps, and rivers, generating environmental impact. In Brazil, this number reached 234 thousand tons in 2018. The degradation of this material in nature can take millions of years and occurs by photodegradation, which produces very toxic compounds, or by rare bacteria. Industrially, the main recycling methods require high temperature and high-pressure conditions, consume large amounts of energy and/or generate toxic and harmful substances to the environment.

Technology for biological degradation of plastics

To minimize this kind of negative impact on the environment, CNPEM researchers have developed an enzyme cocktail for polymer degradation, already validated for PET and with the possibility of customization for other types of plastics, which overcomes the bottleneck of moderate catalysis rates presented by enzymes and active microorganisms currently known, and generates no environmental impact of the technologies used industrially today.