Flipping the mattress: infinite polyurethane recycling by synthetic biology

澳大利亚覆盖着数十亿吨塑料，但今天仍有10%的塑料被回收利用。聚氨酯(PU)在我们的日常生活中无处不在，从漆涂层到弹性服装，再到汽车座椅、坐垫和床垫的耐用泡沫填充。目前，PU回收的途径很少，很多最终被填埋，例如，一张床垫产生15-20公斤的PU泡沫塑料废物。幸运的是，PU的生物降解可以通过各种微生物途径自然发生，也可以从昆虫(如梅隆鸡冠菌幼虫)那里发生。该研究项目的总体目标是了解塑料的生物降解，并将自然解决方案转化为灵活高效的合成酶技术，从而可持续地回收常用的PU泡沫塑料。

Australia is covered in billions of tonnes of plastic and yet <10% is recycled today. Polyurethane (PU) is ubiquitous in our everyday lives, from lacquer coatings to elastane clothing to durable foam padding in car seats, cushions and mattresses. Currently, there are few avenues for PU recycling and much ends up in landfill e.g., a single mattress produces 15-20kg of PU foam waste. Luckily, biodegradation of PU can occur naturally via various microbial means and from insects, like Galleria mellonella larvae. The overall aim of this research project is to understand plastic biodegradation and translate nature’s solutions into flexible and efficient synthetic enzyme technologies that can sustainably recycle commonly used PU foams.