imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Hubweg 15 74939 Zuzenhausen, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 [email protected] EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Anthony Withers WikiPETia. info [email protected] MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann [email protected] Johann Lange-Brock [email protected] phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur | exprim.de Matthias Gaumann READER SERVICES Till Kretner [email protected] PRINT Chroma Druck Eine Unternehmung der Limberg-Druck GmbH Danziger Platz 6 67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | www.petpla.net PETplanet Insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ subscription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 05/22 www.petpla.net Dear readers, The PET bottle recycling rate in the USA has been languishing below 30% for years. The reasons are complex and have already been questioned several times at this point. Now, from Texas, comes a proposal from a completely different direction. The idea, from the University of Texas in Austin, is to depolymerise PET in just 24 hours using enzymes and then repolymerise it again later. “The possibilities are endless across industries to leverage this leading-edge recycling process,” said Hal Alper, Professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at UT Austin. “Beyond the obvious waste management industry, this also provides corporations from every sector the opportunity to take a lead in recycling their products. Through these more sustainable enzyme approaches, we can begin to envision a true circular plastics economy.” Research into enzymes for plastic recycling has been going on for over 15 years, but never at this speed of just 24 hours. For mixed PET fractions, this is perhaps a viable option so that one do not have to sort them according to type. So in the study, 51 different post-consumer plastic containers, five different polyester fibres and fabrics and water bottles all made from PET were examined. Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering and College of Natural Sciences used a machine learning model to generate novel mutations to a natural enzyme called PETase that allows bacteria to degrade PET plastics. The model predicts which mutations in these enzymes would accomplish the goal of quickly depolymerising postconsumer waste plastic at low temperatures. Despite all the enthusiasm for these fast enzymes, we must not lose sight of the fact that post-consumer PET waste still has to be collected, even in the USA... For the more down-to-earth amongst our readers, you will find many substantive articles about bottle recycling in this issue. Yours sincerely, Alexander Büchler
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTY0MjI=