World’s first ice cream made with plastic

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 At a glance, this looks like your regular vanilla ice cream.

00:04 But the dessert is the first of its kind in the world.

00:07 Its flavouring is derived from plastic waste.

00:10 "The vanilla contained in the ice cream is coming from the same plastic as we can find

00:16 in plastic bottles.

00:18 And I did that collaborating with bacteria and enzymes that naturally evolved to digest

00:25 plastic."

00:27 The process is developed by scientists in Edinburgh and harnesses the power of bacteria

00:32 and enzymes to break down the plastic's polymers into molecules that are no longer plastic.

00:38 The PETs are then processed by another bacteria to turn it into vanillin.

00:43 The designer says the idea was born from frustration about the failure of the recycling system

00:48 and how it cannot keep up with plastic production.

00:51 But scientists say the ice cream very much remains a research project, not quite ready

00:56 for consumption, but rather a starting point to rethink the way we approach plastic waste.

01:02 "Perhaps misconception around what it actually is by the end of the process that it is no

01:06 longer plastic.

01:07 But I think as part of that, it is really important that we take the safety side of

01:12 it really, really seriously and we make it very clear that this has to go through exactly

01:17 the same regulatory processes and food standard processes as any other food ingredient."

01:23 Plastic pollution is a looming global crisis.

01:26 The world now produces more than 380 million tons of it every year, an amount projected

01:32 to triple by 2060.

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