Size doesn’t always matter. Microscopic little helpers “eat” metal or break plastic down into its constituent parts.
Now, a French startup has opened a large demonstration plant which will recycle PET bottles sustainably.
Enzymes recycle the petroleum-based material in a 20㎥ reactor in 10 to 16 hours, processing up to two metric tons of plastic at a time.
A full-scale industrial plant, with up to twenty times the demonstration capacity, should be operational by 2025. An important step.
Producing edible biodegradable plastics from natural ingredients could be more important still.
