In 2018, scientists at the Kyoto Institute of Technology discovered a bacterium called Ideonella sakaiensis that showed a remarkable ability to use plastics made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as an energy source.

PET is a type of plastic registered in the 1940s and is currently used to make millions of tons of plastic bottles.
PET plastic can remain in the environment for hundreds of years.
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Investigations showed that this bacterium does decomposition work through a pair of enzymes, one of which is called PETase.
After realizing that this enzyme helps bacteria break down or digest PET plastic, researchers at the University of Portsmouth, England, decided to manipulate its structure by adding some amino acids so that it can break down the plastic faster.
They have now managed to combine this enzyme with its co-enzyme called MHETase to increase the speed of plastic digestion.
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The speed of the natural version of this enzyme is not enough to break down the significant amount of plastic waste that is produced annually in the world, but the production of an engineered version can increase the rate of decomposition.
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PET is a strong plastic material that takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment.
But a modified enzyme, or PTEA, can start breaking down PET in just a few days.
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PET has only been around for the last 50 years which is not a long enough time for a bacterium to evolve to digest it.

In the UK alone, people consume about 13 billion PET water bottles every year, but only about three billion of them are recycled.

Polyesters, which are industrially produced from oil, are widely used in the production of bottles and clothes.
In current recycling processes, polyester materials suffer a gradual loss of quality, meaning they lose some of their properties every time they are recycled.
But the PET-eating enzyme reverses the production process and turns polyester back into raw materials.
These can be used to produce more plastic, which reduces oil consumption.
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In a report published by Yale University, the researchers of this university discovered an organism in the mushrooms of the Amazon rainforest, which can be a new way to get rid of polymeric waste.
A researcher at Yale University discovered that a family of endophytes secrete an enzyme that destroys polyurethane rubber.
This enzyme destroys plastic without needing oxygen, which can be used to destroy buried waste.
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Warning: these questons and answers are not all representative of the way questions will be asked and answered in the pilot, because some questions are compound and some answers do not include citations.

Q: What is Ideonella sakaiensis known for?
A: This is a bacterium that can use PET as a source of energy. [d91d27e8-792f-42d6-8fa2-eb0d6e6111c3]

Q: What is one of the usages of PET?
A: It is used for making plastic bottles. [d91d27e8-792f-42d6-8fa2-eb0d6e6111c3]

Q: By what means does Ideonella sakaiensis decompose PET?
A: It does decomposing through a pair of enzymes. [f00e234e-2953-4590-8ca1-f86a457516df, d91d27e8-792f-42d6-8fa2-eb0d6e6111c3]

Q: How did the researchers make the plastic decomposing enzyme act faster?
A: By adding some amino acids to it. [f00e234e-2953-4590-8ca1-f86a457516df, d91d27e8-792f-42d6-8fa2-eb0d6e6111c3]

Q: For what purpose do the scientists want to increase the speed of the enzyme’s decomposition?
A: The speed of the natural version of this enzyme is not enough to break down the significant amount of plastic waste that is produced annually in the world. [f00e234e-2953-4590-8ca1-f86a457516df]

Q: Why aren’t there naturally evolved bacteria to decompose PET?
A: PET has only been around for the last 50 years which is not a long enough time for a bacterium to evolve to digest it. [de843d92-c188-43cb-b2eb-78580bb48d54]

Q: Roughly what percentage of plastic water bottles used by people in the UK are recycled?
A: One fourth (three billion out of 13 billion). [de843d92-c188-43cb-b2eb-78580bb48d54]

Q: What is the reason that we cannot endlessly recycle and reuse PET?
A: It’s because in current recycling processes, polyester materials suffer a gradual loss of quality, meaning they lose some of their properties every time they are recycled. [de843d92-c188-43cb-b2eb-78580bb48d54]

Q: What is the advantage of PET-eating enzymes over the current recycling process?
A: It reverses the production process and turns polyester back into raw materials. These can be used to produce more plastic, which reduces oil consumption. [de843d92-c188-43cb-b2eb-78580bb48d54]

Q: What is the source of another plastic decomposing enzyme that Yale University researchers found?
A: They discovered an enzyme in the mushrooms of the Amazon rainforest which can be a new way to get rid of polymeric waste. [59c3c2fd-7c97-4f47-abb2-5a3ef03ef80e]

Q: What is the significance of this enzyme from endophytes in Amazon?
A: This enzyme destroys plastic without needing oxygen, which can be used to destroy buried waste. [59c3c2fd-7c97-4f47-abb2-5a3ef03ef80e]

Q: What is the co-enzyme that is added to PETase to increase the speed of plastic digestion?
A: MHETase. [f00e234e-2953-4590-8ca1-f86a457516df, d91d27e8-792f-42d6-8fa2-eb0d6e6111c3]

Q: How long does it take for PET to decompose in nature?
A: Hundreds of years. [de843d92-c188-43cb-b2eb-78580bb48d54, 936c722a-970f-423f-ac6b-e1ebc598caa8]

Q: In presence of the modified enzyme, how long does it take for PET to decompose?
A: It can start breaking down in just a few days. [de843d92-c188-43cb-b2eb-78580bb48d54, 936c722a-970f-423f-ac6b-e1ebc598caa8]