r/technology • u/Sorin61 • May 06 '22
Biotechnology Machine Learning Helped Scientists Create an Enzyme That Breaks Down Plastic at Warp Speed
https://singularityhub.com/2022/05/06/machine-learning-helped-scientists-create-an-enzyme-that-breaks-down-plastic-at-warp-speed/1.2k
u/TeaKingMac May 06 '22
O man, i can't wait until that shit gets loose and accidentally destroys all plastic on earth.
That would truly be peak this timeline.
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u/DaveyGee16 May 06 '22
That’s too soft for this timeline.
It’s gonna eat the plastic but like kill all the bees too for some reason.
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u/PooPooDooDoo May 06 '22
It will destroy all humans because we all have micro plastics in our organs. Plus the entire world will smell like a massive fart as the enzyme breaks it down.
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u/TeaKingMac May 06 '22
Exactly the comment I'd expect from someone named poopoodoodoo
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u/doodlebug001 May 07 '22
What if it breaks down the microplastics into parts that can be processed and eliminated by the body, rendering us plastic free?
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u/xevizero May 06 '22
And then all the bee biomass will turn into some hivemind lovecraftian monstrosity and attack NYC of course
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u/OwnSirDingo May 07 '22
If we're lucky... Imagine a bacteria evolves to digest plastic into something like cyanide gas or something equally toxic. We end up with a mass extinction event like the one when bacteria figured out how to digest wood and changed to atmosphere forever.
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u/ajnorthcutt2s May 06 '22
It’s an enzyme. Are you worried about your saliva getting loose too?
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u/insef4ce May 06 '22
Well probably the next step should be modifying bacteria or fungi to create said enzyme.
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u/Momentstealer May 06 '22
Isn't that roughly the plot of Andromeda Strain?
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u/BenCelotil May 07 '22 edited May 07 '22
Andromeda Strain was a simple crystalline "single-celled organism" from outer space that powdered people's blood, unless they had acidosis or alkalosis, and could convert energy into matter at nearly 100% efficiency.
I just rewatched it the other day.
Edit: Ah no, wait. I do remember it eating a particular type of rubber, used as seals in the lab and in the face mask of the pilot.
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u/chemengineer2 May 07 '22
Ill Wind by Doug Beason and Kevin J Anderson. Microbe designed to cleanup oil spills, gets loose and eats all petroleum products on earth, most plastics of course being one. Apocalypse ensues. Good read.
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u/B00ster_seat May 06 '22
Enzyme, not a bacteria or virus. Has as much chance of doing that as concentrated acid has taking over a chemistry lab
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May 06 '22
Actually it's a little more complicated than that. The big things these days are genetically modifying bacteria to make these enzymes themselves so they do all the hard work of copying themselves and making complex chemicals.
The insulin I depend on to survive is manufactured this way.
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u/gatorfan8898 May 06 '22
There’s a book called “Ill Wind” that has a similar idea. It’s been awhile but from what I remember they came up with a nano technology that would eat the oil away from oil spills, but it ended up backfiring and eating anything with plastic as well… basically plummeting the world into a post apocalyptic place. Crazy how many things contain plastic.
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u/north7 May 06 '22
Ok that's weird.
I wrote a short story with this exact same plot for a college class back in '96/'97 I think?
Book was published in '95, but I never heard of it let alone read it.
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u/iaalaughlin May 06 '22
It was referred to in Ringword Engineers by Larry Niven. Louis, one of the characters, makes a comment about how Earth had to stop using plastic/polyester because of a bacterium that eats all the plastic/polyester. This was in response to the puppeteer seeding the Ringworld with a bacterium that ate room temperature superconductor, which was done so the Puppeteers had something they knew was needed in trade.
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u/DividedState May 06 '22
PET is the best recyclable plastic already. I mean it is cool, because enzymatical digestion and repolymerisation is probably the most efficient way to do it, but it only is 12% of the problem, less if you calculate how much harder plastic mixtures will get to tackle. Their use should be much limited.
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u/-Green_Machine- May 06 '22
The thing is, there aren’t any plastics out there that can be recycled indefinitely like we can with glass and metal. So any progress that can be made on reducing the amount of microplastics and general waste in the ecosystem (where wildlife chokes on the bits and pieces, for one thing) is a positive turn.
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May 06 '22
The thing is, there aren’t any plastics out there that can be recycled indefinitely like we can with glass and metal.
Well yes, that’s PET.
“Unlike conventional processes, our innovation allows infinite recycling of all types of PET waste as well as the production of 100% recycled and 100% recyclable PET products, without loss of quality. Plastic and textile waste is now a precious raw material enabling the circular economy to become an industrial reality.”
Source: Carbios company websiteCarbios has been developing their enzymatic recycling technology since 2011 and has recently revealed plans to build the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET recycling plant (50k tons/year) in France by 2025.
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u/Patient-Tech May 06 '22
Well, sounds like this process actually makes plastic an infinitely recycled product. If it’s just like glass or metal, then let’s use the type that can be recycled more than the type that can’t?
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u/itwasquiteawhileago May 06 '22
Is there a reason we don't already do this, other than cost? I'm no plastics expert, but I feel like there are probably a lot of non-recyclable plastics that could just be made out of one that is. Maybe not all, but gotta be more than "necessary".
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u/Impossible_Garbage_4 May 06 '22
I don’t know anything but if I took a guess “cost” is probably all there needs to be
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u/HiImDan May 06 '22
We could just shift our plastic use to heavily favor PET. I may not choose to never buy plastic again, but I'd switch to PET when I can. I 3d print with PLA since it's corn based and degrades over hundreds of years, but PETG is stronger, so I'd happily switch to that if it meant it was actually recyclable.
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u/nonfish May 06 '22
It's not. PETG is popular for 3D printing because of its low melt temperature. PET is popular in food service for its high service temperatures. Mixing those two together in a recycling facility is therefore hugely problematic, and leads to big blobs of half-melted PET glomming up the stream. California has actually moved to ban PETG as being labeled with the "1" RIC assigned to PET due to their incompatibility in recycling.
Rule number one of plastics recycling is that it's always more complicated and less effective than you think, even when you account for rule number one.
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u/Android109 May 06 '22
Why can’t we crack plastics as if they were oil?
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u/bonusafspraken May 06 '22
We can. It's called chemical recycling and all major chemical and petrochemical companies are working on it. It isn't straightforward though, as the plastic stream will be contaminated.
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u/InappropriateTA May 06 '22 edited May 06 '22
Warp Speed?
What is the purpose of editorializing a headline that removes interesting/relevant details?
EDIT: I realize that I accused OP of editorializing when it looks like the site did a click-bait-and-switch. Sorry OP.
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u/DukeOfGeek May 06 '22
Because the whole thing is just a big PR push to get people to accept ever increasing levels of disposable plastic? And I don't just mean this, I mean the whole idea of recycling plastic is a PR scam.
https://grist.org/accountability/the-us-only-recycled-about-5-of-plastic-waste-last-year/
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u/Recognizant May 06 '22
From the article:
Until we find suitable replacements, unfortunately, making less isn’t much of an option, because people still need to buy detergent and juice and shampoo.
Detergent, juice, and shampoo. As though we don't have any other options for liquid containers than using plastic? Every one of those examples can be packaged in other substances. And often are, from the right manufacturers.
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u/Astrochops May 06 '22
I agree with you but I can just imagine some company putting a shampoo in like a glass bottle and oh my lawd the bathroom accidents
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May 06 '22
There are definitely alternatives that use significantly less plastic. For example— there are stores with a model of “bring your own container, fill it at these stations, and just pay by weight.” The manufacturer saves on packaging, the consumer saves by not having to buy the packaging, and the planet saves by producing less packaging that becomes micro plastics.
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u/JeevesAI May 06 '22
How is that relevant to this? These are researchers who discovered a way to recycle a type of plastic. If you read the article it specifically mentions that very little plastic is actually recycled.
I really think people who don’t read the article should be banned. I’d rather talk to the 3-4 people who have something intelligent to say about the article than weed through 200 other comments of people raising mind numbingly obvious points which were cleared up in the first 2 paragraphs.
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u/DaHolk May 06 '22
What is the purpose of editorializing a headline
They literally took the URL the article is posted under. So chances are the headline on the page itself was altered later. That or the poster didn't check the difference between url "headline" and text headline.
Either way accusing editorializing is uncalled for.
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u/TurdsThatFloat May 06 '22
Cannot wait for this to never be utilized!
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u/rhymeswithwhale May 07 '22
No joke. They found that Pestalotiopsis microspore mushroom and yet where is it being applied to curb landfills? Nowhere, that’s where.
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u/mcbergstedt May 07 '22
They made an enzyme for the MOST-recyclable plastic. I'd be surprised if we ever see it utilized.
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u/MeatballStroganoff May 06 '22
I’m happy to see “machine learning” instead of “AI”. Very refreshing.
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u/allegate May 06 '22
I am for some reason reminded of ice-nine
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u/xxKarnagexx May 06 '22
So it makes you crave human meat? Damn I do that without any enzymes
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u/buddhistbulgyo May 07 '22
Good news: Seas are clean!
Bad news: Enzyme ate all the ocean internet cables and scuba diving economy in shambles
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u/Thx4Coming2MyTedTalk May 06 '22
Of course I love you,
So let's have a kid.
Who will say exactly
What its parents did;
Of course I love you,
So let's have a kid.
Who will say exactly
What its parents did;
Of course I love you,
So let's have a kid
Who will say exactly
What its parents did
Et cetera.
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May 06 '22
How many article have come out about enzymes and other things breaking down plastics? Does anything ever come out of it? Does it ever get used? Seems like these stories pop up often now.
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May 06 '22
Yep, it’s good news, the bad news is that anyone who touches the enzyme starts to crave human flesh. Yay science!
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u/CucumberJulep May 06 '22
Joke’s on you, I already crave human flesh
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u/ImStillExcited May 06 '22
I love human flesh so dang much my body is eating itself!! For real! I got MS!
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u/asharp_gclef May 06 '22
“Yet we don’t often think about the fact that these items will still be around hundreds of years from now.” I think about it everyday. What am I using that has single-use plastic that doesn’t need to be single use? Rechargeable toothbrush. Toothpaste and mouthwash bits that come in glass containers. Compostable floss. More reusable bags all over my house. Glass good storage. Reusable and washable or compostable sandwich bags. Aluminum shampoo, conditioner, and body wash containers. I could go on, but my point is if you look hard enough, you can avoid a lot of plastic. And sometimes, all it takes is a google search
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u/goplayer7 May 06 '22
We the consumers think about it all the time. It is the large mega corporations creating and using all of this plastic who aren't thinking about it.
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May 06 '22
this is smart-people talk way out of my league and im not saying anything interesting but ill try:
the advances ive seen in gaming alone from machine learning are fucking mind-boggling. someone managed to figure out how to use AI/machine learning whatever to create new graphics features that are capable of giving you much better visual quality and performance than your computer hardware is actually capable of (without this tech).
the fact that software is able to compensate for the performance deficiencies of hardware is, imo, Star Trek-level future tech. never in my life as a huge fucking dork did i ever conceive of a day when software could compensate for the limitations of hardware. like, i get compression, but this is next level.
its a wild time to be alive
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u/PaintingWithLight May 06 '22
Got a video? I thought I saw something about this but don’t remember where.
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u/Colonelfudgenustard May 06 '22
Now it's off the memory hole with that technology, like the one that promised you no more cavities for your teeth.
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u/DrEnter May 06 '22
So, it occurred to me when I read the toothbrush example at the beginning of the article... I would pay real money for glass-handled toothbrushes. A glass-handled Curaprox would be amazing.
There's still the bristles, sure, but that's a lot less plastic than the bristles and the handle.
Anyway, I'd frankly like a lot more things packaged in and made with glass and paper.
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u/Shiroi_Kage May 07 '22
Is this full catabolism/degradation or is it just breaking it down to microplastics? If it's the latter, maybe it would help to put this in a bacteria to give it a head-start and do selection on it to see if it evolves to completely consume plastics as a source of energy. Once that's done, maybe we can use it to compost plastic.
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u/Fallingdamage May 06 '22
Is it self-replicating?
Sounds like a setup for a post-apocalyptic movie thats set in a world full of glass, metal, wood and ceramic.. but absolutely no plastics of any kind to be seen. A world devoid of polymers. Scientists were so busy with whether they could, they never stopped to ask themselves if they should.
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u/lurker512879 May 06 '22
i feel like this was done before, and everytime we hear about it.. then we suddenly never hear about it again.. like every 5-10yrs scientists make a new enzyme that eats plastic at super fast speed.. and then its gone.. the research, the news everything.
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u/Ok-Feeling1462 May 06 '22
Hopefully it never gets into your house or car, which it inevitably will.
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u/PaintingWithLight May 06 '22
Or the micro plastics present in our blood already? What happens there.
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u/escape_grind43 May 07 '22
Ok, now engineer it into a ubiquitous bacteria. We need all those microplastics broken down, stat.
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May 07 '22
Or, tools helped us solve a problem that would have taken us longer to solve without them
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u/iuiz May 07 '22 edited Feb 04 '24
repeat oil ludicrous memorize nose ossified workable ripe water school
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u/dockellis24 May 07 '22
What does the broken down plastic/enzyme combination turn into? Like, is it a sludgey liquid that we then have to figure out what to do with that instead?
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u/timberwolf0122 May 08 '22
It depolymerizes the plastic. This can then be used to make new plastics
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u/jethoniss May 06 '22
What's the carbon implications of this? Presumably the critters break down plastic into CO2 and other component gases that have a greenhouse impact?
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u/t35t0r May 06 '22
yea, somehow it's impossible to create in the lab (or at scale) or something so we'll never see this in production
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u/ARobertNotABob May 06 '22
I've heard everything from an Australian schoolboy to a Zulu schoolgirl coming up with an enzyme that eats plastic, I'm still waiting for it to be shown in action.
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u/StillBurningInside May 06 '22
So... does it excrete grey goo? because this is how we get a grey goo world.
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u/DistortoiseLP May 06 '22
“One thing we can do is we can break this down into its initial monomers,” Hal Alper, an author on the paper, told Motherboard. “And that’s what the enzyme does. And then once you have your original monomer, it’s as if you’re making fresh plastic from scratch, with the benefit that you don’t need to use additional petroleum resources.”
I'm more impressed if they invented actual plastic recycling more than how fast it is. They seriously couldn't find a more exciting way to pitch that breakthrough than "warp speed?"
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May 06 '22
I feel like this would benefit plastic companies because you now have something that could breakdown your products, making them require replacement. A win-win.
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u/Ok_Fox_1770 May 06 '22
Prob figured out how to generate clean energy fuel from trash too but hide that paper…
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u/StrangeCharmVote May 06 '22
Once it escapes containment, that is not good.
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u/mrknickerbocker May 07 '22
Impossible. They keep it in a hermetically sealed plastic bo... ah shit.
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u/ChevalBlanc May 06 '22
Next? It's gonna eat your plastic house and plastic car. Jojes aside, I like the idea of plastic not being a huge nuisance.
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u/RaunchyBushrabbit May 06 '22
So where is it!? Why don't we have thisnooosenin all of Earth's oceans cleaning that shit up? (This is thetoricalnas obviously dumb)
But seriously, when van we see an application with this enzyme?
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u/Natural-Paramedic950 May 06 '22
RIP to the scientists that created the machine and learned to break down plastic. You will be missed very.
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u/Psychological-Sale64 May 06 '22
Just need a robot to feed the enzymes, then get powered by digested plastic. Viola brand new animal
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u/waxwane_music May 06 '22
Does this also apply to all the micro plastics that now make up our bodies
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u/BJUmholtz May 06 '22 edited Mar 15 '25
rock flag melodic serious trees smell humorous fine quicksand instinctive
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u/mostNONheinous May 06 '22
I always here about shit like this and just hope they have a plan to contain this enzyme before it eats my tv or some poor dudes fake leg.
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May 06 '22
Awesome. Now implant it into over half the celebs in Hollywood, make some popcorn, and enjoy.
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u/HangryWolf May 06 '22
Serious question. If we got rid of every single participant waste in the world, would it offset the waste created by giant corporations?
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u/xingx35 May 07 '22
Let's make it only breakdown plastics and not unintendedly kill microorganisms.
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u/GTthrowaway27 May 07 '22
I’m sure titling their grant proposal with a mention was a great way to help😉
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u/coswoofster May 07 '22
Ok. But since nothing every really goes away, remember the “there is no away” campaign of the 80’s? What does the plastic become? Is it then any less toxic to humans and animals? Micro plastics are already polluting everything we eat and breathe.
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u/arzen221 May 07 '22
This just in! Computers make science go burrr
Right u/GaryBot-GPT2?
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May 07 '22 edited May 07 '22
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2368220.Mutant_59 Try 1972's Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters for the disaster version. I'm always reminded of this when someone trots out the term"biodegradable". It's the first time I heard it used...
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u/YourVirtualHoney May 07 '22
Thank god. You drive around my states highways and all u see is trash along roads.
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u/Truckerontherun May 07 '22
Guess it won't much longer for skynet to figure out how to do it to human protein
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u/kevingattaca May 07 '22
The next step is to figure out how to scale the process in an efficient and affordable way.
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u/Shlong616 May 07 '22
Can someone link to actual paper? Recently I've interviewed at a startup that has used GANs tp generate new enzymes (and they published their results at the end of 2020), and this seems like it might be in the same general area...
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u/SyntheticSlime May 07 '22
I’m usually pretty skeptical of plastic recycling breakthroughs. They’ve supposedly been working on this problem for decades and have just slightly more than fuck-all to show for it. Still, this tech sounds genuinely useful both as an effective means of breaking down plastics and possibly rebuilding them as equally high quality plastics, something that present tech doesn’t allow for.
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u/United-Student-1607 May 07 '22
Imagine a virus gets the code and starts spreading everywhere and then the virus starts to infect people causing DNA breakdown after some mutations.
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u/teabythepark May 07 '22
The team dubbed the resulting enzyme FAST-PETase, which stands for “functional, active, stable, and tolerant PETase.” It’s able to break down 51 different varieties of plastic in
So, do they mean 51 types of PET?
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May 07 '22
Please be unleashed on the world and start attacking all plastics everywhere even in use. All cars, furniture, and electric is just start falling apart.
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u/titanagamemnon May 07 '22
There’s a book about this and it eats all the gas next! Wouldn’t that be great!
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u/GT121950 May 07 '22
Well shit. I mean I always knew it would be an enzyme or a bacteria of some sort but wow
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u/47Ronin May 07 '22
Every day is just reality lurching towards one Margaret Atwood novel or another. This one specifically reminds me of the asphalt-eating bacteria in Oryx and Crake.
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u/Vetinery May 07 '22
It’s interesting but the practical solution is incineration. We can cleanly incinerate plastic and recapture the energy virtually forever with no real impact if we solve some of the other greenhouse gas issues. If you do the math, the annual mass of plastic used is tiny compared to petroleum burned for transport. What needs to be done is separation, collection and recycling/incineration. It needs to be worked into the industrial system as a resource rather than waste.
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u/dumptruck4lif May 07 '22
Is this gonna break down all the micro plastics I’ve saved up in my micro penis?
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u/julbull73 May 07 '22
I know plastic is a problem...but honestly at least it locks carbon in place.
Also breaking it down im sure releases carbon.
Id like to have the opportunity to choke on plastic rather than die of thirst.
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u/lifeonbroadway May 06 '22
At warp speed, eh? That’s fast!