This Newly Engineered Plastic Eats Itself After Use

Amaze Lab

Humanity’s reliance on plastics continues to grow, despite environmental concerns and finding microplastics inside the human body. Enter this new type of plastic, one that literally eats itself once it is no longer needed.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:03 This might not look like much, but it could literally change humanity's future.

00:07 Plastics have been a problem for a while, with microplastics now having been found inside the human body.

00:13 Still, our reliance on plastics continues to grow,

00:16 pointing to a huge problem and source of growing concern for human health and the health of our planet's ecosystems.

00:23 Enter this new type of plastic, one that literally eats itself once it's no longer needed.

00:28 It was created using the Bacillus subtilis bacteria, a microorganism capable of eating plastic.

00:33 Researchers engineered it to survive the high-heat plastic production process,

00:37 resulting in a product which has plastic-eating bacteria built right into it.

00:41 Once the plastic has been used and is ready to be discarded,

00:45 it only needs nutrients and moisture to activate the bacteria, which then literally consumes the plastic.

00:51 This could be the solution we've been looking for with regards to solving the plastic crisis,

00:55 especially as it's becoming increasingly clear that recycling simply isn't effective enough.

01:00 What's more, the researchers say that there's another wild side effect of adding this bacteria to plastic products.

01:05 They say the resulting plastic is actually stronger and stretches better than conventional varieties.

01:11 [Music]

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