Pollution is undeniably one of the most prevalent problems facing modern society and plastic makes up a considerable portion of said pollution. Plastic's versatility, light weight, flexibility, moisture resistance, strength, and relatively low cost is what drew the world to develop a massive appetite for plastic goods; however, these aspects which we praised are being turned against us and our environment as tons of plastic debris is being thrown into our lands and oceans. These slowly degrading piles plastic are destroying ecosystems, killing marine life and in turn decreasing our food supplies from the ocean, and poisoning the meats that we consume as animals ingest the plastic floating in our environment.
Recycling plastic is currently inefficient and doesn't reduce the amount of new plastic that our modern society needs to produce. For example, plastic used for making a chair is recycled and the plastic is weakened during the process which means that the plastic cannot be used to make another chair because it is too weak and must be used to create something weaker such as a plastic bottle. This scenario shows that we would have to constantly input resources into the making of plastic because recycling is not effective enough. In order to reduce the amount of plastic in our environment, recycling plastic must come close to one hundred percent efficiency so that companies will be drawn to reclaim plastic rather than produce more because recycling will become the more economically viable option.
My research project seeks to create a true circular flow in the recycling of plastic and remove the need for new materials to create plastic. I will be working to create a genetically modified species of Vibrio Natriegens capable of degrading plastic at a lab in Arizona State University. I will be focusing of the degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) because it is one of the most commonly used plastics. I will be the taking genes from Ideonella Sakaiensis and inserting them into V. Natriegens. I. Sakaiensis was found to be too slow at degrading PET to be put into practical use. I hope that by taking V. Natriegen's PET degrading abilities and combining it with V. Natriegens' fast growth rate, I will be able to create a bacteria capable of breaking down PET efficiently. These basic components that PET is broken down into can be reused to create new plastic with strong bonds and this process can be continued without the risk of the bonds weakening.
