A recycling revolution beckons using plastic-eating bacteria found in trash decades ago
- Two decades after microbes were found eating rubbish, genetic engineering is being done to scale up their diet in an effort to revolutionise plastic recycling
In 2001, a group of Japanese scientists made a startling discovery at a rubbish dump.
In trenches packed with dirt and waste, they found a slimy film of bacteria that had been happily chewing through plastic bottles, toys and other bric-a-brac.
As they broke down the trash, the bacteria harvested the carbon in the plastic for energy, which they used to grow, move and divide into even more plastic-hungry bacteria.
Even if not in quite the hand-to-mouth-to-stomach way we normally understand it, the bacteria was eating the plastic.
The scientists were led by Kohei Oda, a professor at the Kyoto Institute of Technology. His team was looking for substances that could soften synthetic fabrics, such as polyester, which is made from the same kind of plastic used in most drink bottles.
Oda is a microbiologist, and he believes that whatever scientific problem one faces, microbes have probably already worked out a solution. “I say to people, ‘Watch this part of nature very carefully. It often has very good ideas.’”
