Researchers use gastric juice from cows to break down plastic

When it comes to recycling plastic, we are still a long way from where the planet should be. Large amounts of the material are still found in the environment or are burned in waste incineration plants. Reports from 2019 assumethat in this country every year 60 percent of plastic waste ends up in the fire. The plastic usually has a high potential to be used a second time or even a few more times.

Researchers in Austria have now found another interesting way of how common plastic can be sustainably recycled. Cows and the enzymes that are produced in their stomach chambers play an important role in this. Because in the rumen of the animals, vegetable polyesters are also broken down, a component of the ingested food.

For their investigations, the scientists collected gastric juice from cows in slaughterhouses and mixed it with PET plastic in powder and film form. In addition, PBAT (a compostable plastic) and PEF (bioplastic) were investigated in further experimental set-ups. The results were astonishing, as all three materials could be decomposed.

The shape had no effect on the end result, the powder just decomposed a little faster. The researchers describe their results as little researched, so further studies are to be carried out in the future. It is also still unclear whether similar results can be achieved outside the laboratory.

The use of bacteria is not a new approach. A bacterium was developed in Japan that converts PET waste into energy and carbon. The use of enzymes in the manufacture of plastic is also being discussed; as a result, the substance could decompose on its own within days or months. Perhaps that is why we have come a little closer to solving the plastic problem.

Own opinion:

Plastics have many advantages and disadvantages. Everyday life without plastic is hardly imaginable, we have made ourselves too dependent on the material. Therefore, in my opinion, the key is not to ban or replace all plastic goods, but to move forward to a sustainable and reusable material. The use of processes from nature has already proven to be optimal for many problems, so why not here too?

Via New Atlas