I-Corps: Biodegradable plastics that incorporate plastic degrading enzymes

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to make environmentally friendly plastics. Compostable plastics, one of the fastest growing innovations in the space, promises to enable a circular materials economy. Unfortunately, there is currently poor access to industrial compost nationally, and building infrastructure is costly. Our technology streamlines this degradation process, requiring only water and heat, to produce small molecules than can be readily composted, or turned back into high quality plastics. The global plastic market is $234 B, and successful commercialization could positively impact environmental sustainability while meeting the needs of industry to maintain modern quality of life. The technology can potentially be used for solutions across a breadth of applications, ranging from industrial chemistry to energy generation to biotechnology.This I-Corps project supports efforts toward translation of a class of materials called random heteropolymers (RHPs). RHPs effectively stabilize enzymes in foreign environments, such as organic solvents or within plastics. Enzymes are nature’s chemists, performing chemical transformations with unparalleled efficiency and specificity within cells. However, enzymes are typically fragile and perform poorly, if at all, once removed from the cell. The proposed RHP technology enables enzymes to be covered in a nano-scale shell that shields them from the environment without harming their function. RHPs can be used to embed the enzymes that degrade plastic materials inside of the plastics. Upon triggering, the plastics biodegrade rapidly and completely, leaving behind no microplastics. The monomers can be recaptured and reused to make new plastics or disposed of as compost. The materials can also be processed using current manufacturing techniques. Altogether, this provides an opportunity to produce materials that meet the needs of industry while providing a better end of life with minimal investment in infrastructure. More broadly, RHPs offer the functionality of natural or engineered enzymes with the utility of plastics as a novel approach.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.