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Since the 1950s, humans have produced 8 billion tons of plastic, equivalent to the weight of 1 billion elephants
.
Now, scientists have discovered an incredible way to degrade plastic
.
▲Cow in the Alps
Researchers from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, the Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology, and the University of Innsbruck have found that microbes and enzymes in the gastric juice of cattle can degrade common plastics, including those widely used in plastics Bags, plastic bottles, plastic fabrics, and plastic components of food packaging
.
It turns out that the stomach of cattle has been "trained" in evolution to digest some indigestible food
.
Therefore, the researchers used the gastric juice of Alpine cattle to conduct decomposition tests on three plastics: PET, PBAT and PEF
.
The researchers also found that rumen fluids were more efficient at breaking down plastics than extracting these microbes to break down plastics, which may suggest that its microbial community may have a synergistic advantage, a combination of enzymes and not any one specific enzyme
.
Electron micrograph of plastic after microbial degradation over time
Although further research is needed, these findings are significant enough
.
Professor Georg said that if gastric juice was to be produced on a large scale, it could be collected and used as a by-product of the meat or dairy industries
.
The problem of plastic pollution has intensified in recent years
.
Today, plastic waste can be found in the most remote places around the world
.
An estimated 14 million tons of microplastics have been deposited on the ocean floor
.
In 2020, plastic was found in the gut of a small invertebrate on a remote island in Antarctica
.
A study last year predicted that the world will accumulate 710 million tons of plastic waste by 2040
.
And this is after taking into account the reduction of plastic use, recycling and reuse
.
