Name: Ali Fahad Ali Alhosni
ID: 127296
Date: Sunday, December6, 2020
Course Code: Mass2113/10
Solve the problem of plastic pollution
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Humans produce 300 million tons of new plastic every year. However, despite humans' best efforts, less than 10% of the resources were ultimately recycled. Is there a better way to deal with all this waste?
Morgan Bay presented her research with microbiologist Jamie Lee on bacteria that have developed unexpected abilities to eat plastic and how they can help us solve the growing problem of plastic pollution. Despite our best efforts, only 9% of the plastic we use is recyclable. So how did we end up causing so much plastic waste. Well, it's simple, plastic is cheap, light and adaptive, and it's available everywhere.
Morgan's research shows that certain measures can be taken to help us solve the problem of plastic pollution. You talked about bacteria. Bacteria are microscopic, visible to the naked eye, living in a variety of extreme environments, everywhere. From the human gut to the soil, to the skin to the sea floor vents, the temperature reaches 700 degrees Fahrenheit. Bacteria are ubiquitous in various harsh environments. Therefore, they must be creative with their food sources.
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Morgan wants to feed the bacteria polyethylene terephthalate or polyethylene plastic. It is used in the packaging of various foods and beverages and the most famous example of this is the plastic water bottle that we humans currently go through at a rate of one million per minute. So, what I want to do is put the bacteria into a compulsive diet of tea, plasticine, tea, and sayings, if any, they can survive or hope to thrive. So how do these bacteria do? It is as if we humans digest carbon or food, convert it into sugar, and then use it for energy. Morgan said: “My bacteria have discovered how to perform this digestion”.
Two strong and durable PE plastic. Now, my bacteria use a special form of the enzyme, which is a simple compound found in all living things. There are many different types of enzymes, but they basically allow the process to continue, such as digesting food and converting it into energy. Now, my bacterium has a special enzyme called lipase, which can combine with large, strong, long-lasting pasta and break it into small pieces of sugar, which the bacteria can use as energy. So, essentially, plastic has changed from a strong, persistent pollutant to a delicious bacterial meal.
In the end, Morgan explain point about bacteria which is Naturally occurring bacteria can simply adapt to their plastic-polluted environment and have an amazing development in their ability to ingest polyethylene plastic. So, the bacterial process feeds on plastic. This is a natural process, but it is a very slow process, and there is still a lot of work to be done to figure out how to speed up this process at an appropriate speed. My research is currently looking for a way to achieve this through a series of UVA or UVB pre-treatments, which means we spray polyethylene plastic with sunlight.
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URL: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0qdTRQUh1FBmZg57ATg2SI



















