Every year, 400 million tons of plastic products are produced worldwide, half of which are single-use items discarded within a year. In particular, non-biodegradable plastic waste, which takes over 500 years to decompose naturally, is mostly treated through landfills. During this process, microplastics are formed, disrupting ecosystems or accumulating in organisms, increasing their harmful effects. With landfill sites worldwide reaching capacity, addressing this issue has become increasingly urgent.
Dr. Ahn, Jung Ho's research team at the Clean Energy Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has developed a technology that uses enzymes derived from microorganisms to biodegrade polyethylene.
Polyethylene accounts for 35% of the plastic produced annually and is widely used for various purposes, including packaging materials and plastic bags. Like other non-biodegradable plastics, polyethylene is often disposed in the ocean or soil, where it undergoes continuous oxidation due to air and sunlight.
A research team has successfully identified an enzyme capable of breaking down this oxidized polyethylene for the first time. The findings are published in the journal Bioresource Technology.
The research team focused on lipase, an enzyme that breaks down the natural polymer lipid, which has a chemically similar structure to polyethylene. They then developed a purification and production process for lipase based on synthetic biology and successfully discovered Pelosinus fermentans lipase 1 (PFL1).
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