Newly discovered bacterial alchemists could help save billions
of plastic bottles from landfills. The Pseudomonas strains can
convert the low-grade PET plastic used in drinks bottles into a
more valuable and biodegradable plastic called PHA. PHA is
already used in medical applications, from artery-supporting
tubes called stents to wound dressings. The plastic can be
processed to have a range of physical properties. However, one
of the barriers to PHA reaching wider use is the absence of a
way to make it in large quantities. The new bacteria-driven
process – termed upcycling – could address that, and make
recycling PET bottles more economically attractive. PET bugs
Although billions of plastic bottles are made each year, few are
ultimately recycled. Just 23.5% of US bottles were recycled in
2006. This is because the recycling process simply converts the
low value PET bottles into more PET, says Kevin O'Connor at
University College Dublin, Ireland. "We wanted to see if we
could turn the plastic into something o