An in-built depolymerisation solution for polyethylene waste

这个项目旨在设计一种可以嵌入聚乙烯的酶，然后在堆肥堆的高温下激活，将塑料分解成小分子。目前还没有很好的方法来控制聚乙烯废物的分解，相反，研究人员把重点放在了依赖于改变骨干的潜在化学成分和或收集到中央设施的解决方案上。我们的方法将导致内置的分解，不需要在中心设施中收集和回收。由于它是基于解聚合机制，所以不会产生有害的、部分分解的微塑料。

This project aims to design enzymes that can be embedded into polyethylene, and later activated by the elevated temperatures of a compost heap, to depolymerise the plastic to small molecules. There are no good options available for the controlled decomposition of polyethylene waste at present, and instead researchers have focussed on solutions that rely on modifications to the underlying chemistry of the backbone and or collection to a central facility. Our approach would result in an in-built decomposition that does not require collection and recycling in a central facility. Since it is based on a depolymerisation mechanism it does not result in the production of harmful, partially disintegrated microplastics.