Bio-upcycling of bioplastic wastes into polyhydroxyalkanoates.
Intasit R, Napathorn SC, Kim BS
Circular Bioeconomy
Biodegradable plastic bags and packaging you use to protect your garden purchases or compost your food scraps could one day be recycled into new eco-friendly materials instead of simply breaking down in a landfill.
Researchers took three types of compostable plastics, dissolved them with a chemical process, and fed the resulting liquid to a type of bacteria. The bacteria ate the dissolved plastic and turned it into a brand-new biodegradable plastic material. This means we could take plastic waste and transform it into something useful, rather than just throwing it away.
Key Findings
Bacteria converted dissolved compostable plastic into new bioplastic with up to 32.9% yield by weight in a 5-liter bioreactor after 96 hours.
Polylactic acid (PLA, a common compostable plastic) achieved 100% dissolution efficiency and produced the highest bioplastic output at 3.69 g/L in larger bioreactor trials.
The newly produced bioplastic was thermally stable up to 250°C, suggesting it could be a high-quality, functional material suitable for real-world applications.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists discovered a way to turn used biodegradable plastics — like compostable packaging — into a new, useful bioplastic by feeding them to bacteria. This creates a circular recycling loop for materials that might otherwise end up in landfills or compost bins.
Abstract Preview
This study presents a sustainable bioconversion strategy for upcycling biodegradable plastics into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) using Paracoccus sp. LL1. Alkaline hydrolysis was used to depolymeriz...
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