Breaking down plastic pollution with bacteria

The process can be used to create new plastics, fertilisers, and biofuels

Spotted: Although reducing the production of primary plastics is crucial to tackling our plastic problem, researchers highlight that this “challenges the politics of the global plastics economy.” As negotiations continue among the global community around how to best find a solution to such a complex dilemma, innovators like Australia’s Alkany are creating ways to break down plastics that are already in use.

Alkany’s Biological Waste Plastic technology works on plastics that are traditionally the most difficult to recycle – particularly those that contain a mixture of materials, including organic compounds. The process begins by sorting, cleaning, and shredding the waste plastics, including hard and thin film soft plastics. Catalysts are then added that allow introduced bacteria to digest the waste at commercial volumes.

Enzymes, wastewater, bacteria, and the plastics are combined in anaerobic digesters. Alkany’s process allows the outputs of the digestion to be customised, with gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and methane being extracted in a pure form to be used in the creation of new virgin plastics, fertilisers, biofuels, and more.

Alkany developed its plastic waste technology during 20 years of research. The microbial digestion process has applications in industries ranging from food processing and agriculture to civil waste management. And, it helps reduce landfill while introducing new, sustainable, chemical manufacturing methods.

Written By: Keely Khoury