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Our love for plastic has served us well. They are excellent materials to hold our variety of stuff. Also, since they are non-reactive, they are pretty safe as well.

However, as it usually happens, our activities have harmed the planet. And this time it's big. Really big. The pollution caused by waste plastic material is at an alarmingly high rate and has adversely impacted millions of other species.

It's quite sad really that through our activities, we not only hurt our own selves, we also hurt other inhabitants of the planet! We seriously need to reconsider our effects on the planet.

Along that line, researchers have recently created a mutant enzyme that can break down plastic in hours. If this can really work on scale, it might actually solve our plastic problem!

# The Holy Grail?
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Researchers from Carbios, an industrial development company, have created a mutant enzyme. It can break down plastic bottles in a matter of hours. Why is that important? Because it helps solve the recycling problem.

Historically, recycled plastic is of lower quality. That is why it cannot simply be used for the same purpose it once served. The mutant enzyme, however, breaks down PET plastic bottles into their individual chemical composites. And these can be used to make new bottles.

This particular enzyme outperforms all other similar enzymes. What's more, it is also quite cost-effective to produce. In fact, producing brand new plastic from crude oil would cost 25 times as much. This just might be the breakthrough we needed to solve our plastic problem.

The researchers from Carbios were able to deliver this enzyme in partnership with global leaders like Pepsi and L'Oreal. If they can produce it in scale, a huge global problem will be solved. Currently, they want to test the material in 2021 in France. And by 2025, they want to start large scale production.