Plastics can take hundreds of years to naturally degrade in the environment, something this new combination of enzymes can accomplish in a matter of days. Photo by Fachrul Reza/NurPhoto via Getty ...

Jason Boock and Jason Berberich, both professors of Chemical, Paper, and Biomedical Engineering at Miami University, are researching methods to produce an enzyme that has large potential to change how ...

Of the 10 billion metric tons of plastic that humans have produced so far, only a small fraction has been recycled. Most of it sits in landfills or in the environment, where it could take centuries to ...

Inside a bioreactor in the laboratory of the France-based startup Carbios, pulverized PET plastic waste—the kind of plastic found in drink bottles and polyester clothing—is mixed with water and ...

Among the various plastic recycling methods being explored, one promising approach is biological plastic recycling, also ...

Plastics have a lot of properties that have made them fixtures of modern societies. They can be molded into any shape we’d like, they’re tough yet flexible, and they come in enough variations that we ...

Tracking individual enzymes during the breakdown of cellulose for biofuel production has revealed how several roadblocks slow this process when using plant material that might otherwise go to waste.

Comamonadacae is a family of bacteria often found growing on plastics in water. A new study finds a bacterium in this family can break down the plastic for food. Researchers also identified the enzyme ...

A gross fact of life is that we’re all ingesting plastic. Turtles eat plastic. Birds eat plastic. And one study found that humans eat a credit card worth of plastic each week. Now, scientists have ...

Most of the plastic we use doesn’t get recycled. Instead, it ends up in landfills, where it can take as long as 450 years for it to fully decompose. Engineers and scientists at the University of Texas ...