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Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

phys.org

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Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#61

Post by sandworm101 »

Leonelf wrote: post #27
sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire plastics industry is screwed. It is only a matter of time before bacteria evolve some way of getting at the energy stored in plastics. Once that happens, once plastics start to "rot" as they are eaten by bacteria, the impacts on our technology could be catastrophic. The world might looks very steampunk as metal and ceramics replace plastics.

Wood-eating bacteria already exist and we use wood as a material for many things. It's not like such bacteria just spread from breath, like covid-viruses...

Look up shipworm, which historically took out many ships. Plenty of stuff eats wood quickly enough to cause issues. We have just evolved countermeasures. And trees are the product of a billion years of anti-predator evolution. Plastic is different than wood. It is homogenous and dead. Something like a plastic-eating bacteria might move through it exponentially.

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#62

Post by whatshisface »

lysozyme wrote: post #32

As cool as this is, the word “microplastics” is a little misleading. There are dozens of types of plastic in common use, each made from a different monomer with a different chemical linkage, of which PET is only one. The engineered protein in TFA will only work on PET and we’ll need to design new proteins for the other types of plastic. (I can help with that.) The problem with enzymes eating plastic is that enzymes a…

I don't really see why there is a problem with degrading whole bottles. If you have separated from the waste stream, you can incinerate or even landfill them (it's not like you'd be wasting any resources). It's the microplastics that form when the bottles are dumped into the oceans or waterways and broken up by Nature which need a novel solution for removal.

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#63

Post by NegativeLatency »

sandworm101 wrote: post #61
Leonelf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wood-eating bacteria already exist and we use wood as a material for many things. It's not like such bacteria just spread from breath, like covid-viruses...

Look up shipworm, which historically took out many ships. Plenty of stuff eats wood quickly enough to cause issues. We have just evolved countermeasures. And trees are the product of a billion years of anti-predator evolution. Plastic is different than wood. It is homogenous and dead. Something like a plastic-eating bacteria might move through it exponentially.

There are plenty of old wooden houses still standing (even ones which predate modern plastic based paints), people still make boats out of wood too. I suspect similar things will happen with plastic, we'll learn to build and protect plastic in the way that we used to do with wood, and probably more stuff will be built out of stone.

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#64

Post by CptFribble »

Another story about waste "solutions," another opportunity to remind the gentle readers about plasma gasification. A re-post of an earlier comment of mine on the topic follows:

---

Why are we still not talking about plasma gasification? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification

As far as I can tell, the only real "disadvantages" if you can call them that, are:

1. more expensive than throwing the garbage in a big pile somewhere

2. need to clean it from time to time

3. not necessarily a profitable business

Other than that, it can handle just about anything that's not radioactive, can be designed to produce 0 toxic byproducts, and can run at or at least only slightly below energy neutral. Plasma gasifiers can also consume a huge amount of garbage for their size, so much so that the US Navy is starting to put them on the latest generation of aircraft carriers.

Not building out more gasifiers seems to me a failure of the free market. Because it's hard to make it profitable, no one is doing it - when really we should just be building one or two near every major city and funneling all our garbage there.

In theory, we could build out enough to start working through all the landfills too.

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#65

Post by 01100011 »

CptFribble wrote: post #64

Another story about waste "solutions," another opportunity to remind the gentle readers about plasma gasification. A re-post of an earlier comment of mine on the topic follows: --- Why are we still not talking about plasma gasification? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification As far as I can tell, the only real "disadvantages" if you can call them that, are: 1. more expensive than throwing the garbage in a…

Does plasma gasification result in plastic monomers that can be used as building blocks for new polymers? If not, it seems like it is addressing a different need.

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#66

Post by yakubin »

bee_rider wrote: post #40
convolvatron wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

or we could be willing to trade off some of these factors in order not to befoul our home

It is sort of weird because people around the world are staving, while we have tons of food waste in the west. So there is in some sense a crisis and plastics are a tool that could be used to help solve it. But we don’t, instead we peel oranges and then sell them in plastic containers at the grocery store. If we were talking about making hard trade-offs between preservation required to save lives and reducing polluti…

> But we don’t, instead we peel oranges and then sell them in plastic containers at the grocery store.

Someone is selling peeled oranges? O.o

How long until they sell peeled apples?

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#67

Post by Roritharr »

CptFribble wrote: post #64

Another story about waste "solutions," another opportunity to remind the gentle readers about plasma gasification. A re-post of an earlier comment of mine on the topic follows: --- Why are we still not talking about plasma gasification? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification As far as I can tell, the only real "disadvantages" if you can call them that, are: 1. more expensive than throwing the garbage in a…

I'm thinking in the same way, just would love a slimmed down domestic version. The inefficiency of garbage trucks hauling waste around should easily cover the cost of energy for both gasification and the reduction of pollution to acceptable levels.

This would also bring you the added benefit of actually knowing that your waste does not contribute to introducing harmful toxins to groundwater supply or even the sea.

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#68

Post by kragen »

CptFribble wrote: post #64

Another story about waste "solutions," another opportunity to remind the gentle readers about plasma gasification. A re-post of an earlier comment of mine on the topic follows: --- Why are we still not talking about plasma gasification? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification As far as I can tell, the only real "disadvantages" if you can call them that, are: 1. more expensive than throwing the garbage in a…

probably because landfills work fine if you aren't on an aircraft carrier. and they're cheaper. they're also rich veins of valuable minerals for the future, but that unfortunately doesn't figure into their present profitability

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#69

Post by kragen »

01100011 wrote: post #65
CptFribble wrote: post #64

Another story about waste "solutions," another opportunity to remind the gentle readers about plasma gasification. A re-post of an earlier comment of mine on the topic follows: --- Why are we still not talking about plasma gasification? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification As far as I can tell, the only real "disadvantages" if you can call them that, are: 1. more expensive than throwing the garbage in a…

Does plasma gasification result in plastic monomers that can be used as building blocks for new polymers? If not, it seems like it is addressing a different need.

this novel process seems to produce carbon dioxide and water, not terephthalic acid

Re: Scientists create artificial protein that can degrade PET plastics in bottles

#70

Post by kragen »

zackmorris wrote: post #50

I'd like to know who originally put incompatible types of plastic under the same number, which contaminates recycling runs. Like PET/PETE under "1" and injection-molded/blow-molded HDPE under "2": https://www.warwickri.gov/sanitation-recycling/faq/why-cant-... Many cities have banned recycling the most commonly used plastics, like plastic water bottles made of 1 (PET). Where I live, 1 and 2 get recycled, 3 (PVC) gets…

pete isn't a different kind of plastic from pet, it's just a usa-only abbreviation to avoid the non-plastic-related pet trademark the pet company uses on their disposable drinking vessels made from whatever material

the broader point is valid that recycling even hdpe is difficult because of the diversity of fillers and other additives, not to mention variation in molecular weight even before scission by ultraviolet, hydrolysis, or the heat of the molding process

there are in fact people who make a living by recycling. until recently around here they even bought pet, offering lower prices for the colored pet (because with pet you really can economically separate out the fillers and additives and repolymerize it to a known molecular weight)

mostly they recycle paper (mostly cardboard), copper, bronze, brass, lead, and aluminum. glass, steel, concrete, and plastics can be recycled but it's hard to make it profitable

if you hold industry liable for damage done by people improperly discarding its products, soon you will have no industry

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