My last post was centered around Co2, a major contributor to climate change. I realized it was sounding quite negative… because it is. However, I don’t want the outcome of these posts to just make people feel bad and upset, I want them to give hope and inspiration to what could happen in the future. I’m going to focus these next posts on a problem, but then an innovation or way we can reduce the effects of climate change, not completely, but immensely .
For this one, I’m going to talk about plastic, which we all know is a huge contributor to pollution and global effects on the environment as well as all ecosystems. So why are the effects of plastic so detrimental? First, it’s everywhere; since plastic can take up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfills, it is constantly multiplying in size. It litters streets, natural habitats, and what’s not on land ends up in the oceans, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for example.
Since the mass production of plastic, which started around six decades ago, 8.3 billion metric tons of it have been created, 91% of which wasn’t afterwords recycled. The sheer amount of it has affected wildlife everywhere. Plastic is found in the guts of 90% of sea birds, the stomachs of 50% of sea turtles, and is even choking whales to death. If plastic use is not reduced, by 2050, there will be more plastic in certain bodies of water than there are fish inhabiting them.
Another problem with plastic is that it’s the main product for fracking, a method for extracting oil or gas. Fracking pollutes the air, land, and water, creates sinkholes, and raises pressure in rocks (which makes them more susceptible to earthquakes). The plastic created from fracking is usually made for single use, and both the process and what it creates threaten the effects of climate change.
So what can be done? While we can all try our best to reduce the amount of plastic we use, may it be using less plastic bags, water bottles, straws, etc., it won’t do anything to reduce the amount of plastic already existing in the streets, lands, and oceans. However, thanks to a team of researchers in Japan, a solution may be on the rise.
These researchers have been able to create a plastic eating enzyme made of polyethylene terephthalate, PETase, that can break down plastic in a matter of days. Let me remind you, it can take up to 1,000 years for plastic to degrade, around 450 years for plastic water bottles alone. What’s crazy about this discovery is that it was completely accidental; the enzyme is a mutant of another experiment gone wrong. This is how it works: the enzyme eats away at hard plastics, bottles for example, and breaks it down to its original elements, which can be used to make recycled plastic. While this is all still new discovery, scientists are eager to learn more about how the mutated enzyme came to evolve, and what they can do to possibly improve it to break down all kinds of plastic, and at an even faster and more effective rate.
There is, however, a caveat to this accidental groundbreaking discovery. Because it is able to break down plastic in a matter of days, it may give people incentive to produce more of it because they know it will be able to be broken down. It may also give people less incentive to reduce their own personal use of plastic. This possible solution could be taken advantage of to sustain the way we are living rather than to reverse the damage we’ve done.
That being said, for as many people that try to take advantage of this, I think there will be just as many that use it to its fullest potential. Combine reducing plastic use with increased recycling with reducing littering with an enzyme that’s literally eating plastic, and you can get something of monumental change in plastic’s effect on people, wildlife, and the effects of climate change.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2018/04/23/five-ways-that-plastics-harm-the-environment-and-one-way-they-may-help/#240a2f2467a0
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-bottle-waste-eating-enzyme-mutant/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180416155619.htm
I really appreciate this post about the use of plastic, especially by Americans. I am one who has always done my best to recycle at any time I can. I even gave up straws this past summer a purchased a multitude of reusable straws, including this amazing invention called The FinalStraw (which I have unfortunately reverted back to using, but plan to fix in the weeks to come). The U.S. uses enough straws daily in order to stretch around the earth two and a half times (Ferrel 2017). That equates to an average of five hundred million straws every single day (FinalStraw 2019).
I think that the enzyme discovery that you discussed sounds very revolutionary, and I cannot wait to see where that takes us. However, the drawbacks that you discussed, especially considering the findings are still very premature, are quite worrisome for those of us living in the modern world. I, myself, however, am also eager to learn more about these mutated enzymes and hope to see some really amazing advancements in the years to come.
Plastic as a whole is something that could afford to be produced much less. Things such as wood, metal and glass, or even reusable plastic products, can easily help to reduce the amount of plastic that’s being broken down by these newly found enzymes in general.
All in all, I really loved your post and hope to read more about our impact as humans on the environment in your next one.
Sources:
https://thelastplasticstraw.org/about-us/
https://finalstraw.com
First, this is not actually a reply to the comment I just couldn’t get it to comment on the original post, so I’m trying this.
PET is one of the strongest, least-degradable plastics that exists. This is why it’s used in things like water bottles, clothing, and rugs. The issue is, when these things end up strewn about the planet in landfills or oceans, it takes ages for them to biodegrade. That’s where PETase comes into play. I didn’t know this was a thing until I read about it in your article. I knew that PET was difficult to get rid of, but I didn’t know that a chemical or enzyme had actually been discovered yet that does the job.
After researching PETase a bit, I’ve realized how efficient it could be in cleaning the world of plastics. My only wonder or concern however, since I am not an expert in this field, is how all of this would work? When the plastics biodegrade with help from PETase, what happens with the particles of plastic or whatever is left over from the chemical reaction. Does that become a new pollutant we have to deal with? Or, does the chemical reaction possibly pose issues for plants or animals? We don’t want to create a worse environment accidentally when trying to fix the current situation. Being that there is a lot of plastic in the stomachs of marine life, I wonder how PETase would react with those animals. Would it dissolve the marine life, starting with the stomachs? Perhaps I’m being dramatic or just don’t fully understand the chemical, but it seems like there’s a lot to be done in the lab stages of testing this enzyme before it’s released into the environment.
I agree that the immense amount of plastic cluttering the earth is a major issue that needs to be dealt with immediately; however, I wonder whether PETase has been researched enough to make it a reliable option for solving the problem.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43783631
https://www.pnas.org/content/115/19/E4350
https://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2018/research-team-engineers-a-better-plastic-degrading-enzyme.html
I am intrigued about any new solution to alleviate plastic pollution in part because many people – including me, before I read more into it- have misconceptions about plastic alternatives. Plastics that are marketed as ‘green’ still negatively impact the environment
Biodegradable plastics, for example, are not necessarily better for the environment than conventional plastics. Biodegradable plastics are made from the same compounds as conventional plastics, but with additional compounds to help them break down faster. In addition, biodegradable plastics simply decompose into smaller pieces of plastic, which can be absorbed by animals as you said, and have harmful effects on ecosystems. Biodegradable plastics also need light and oxygen to decompose; in a landfill, objects lose access to these very quickly, so although the biodegradable plastic wouldn’t be contaminating a water source it may never decompose. On top of this, biodegradable plastics are some of the most difficult plastics to recycle (Ecology Center).
Even bioplastics, which are meant to break down completely into organic materials and therefore should be compostable, can be polluting. Some bioplastics leave behind toxic residue or small plastic pieces when they decompose and would contaminate a compost.
Reducing the use of single-use plastic would always be the most effective solution to limit pollution in the future. However, it is very still worthwhile to study the PETase enzyme. Once more information is known about the enzyme, it seems it could be ideal to clean up plastic that is already in the ocean or in landfills.
Besides drawbacks you’ve mentioned, another potential drawback of pursuing enzymes as a solution to breaking down plastic is that they may be difficult of expensive to implement on a large scale. In addition, the elements the enzyme breaks plastic into could still be considered pollutants if there is an excess of one substance that is not usually present.
https://ecologycenter.org/blog/ask-our-help-desk-are-bioplastics-and-biodegradable-plastics-really-better/