Summary Reader Response Draft 1

According to the article “Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste” (UT News, 2022), scientists from University of Texas at Austin have discovered a plastic-eating enzyme that could potentially eliminate tons of plastic waste. From the article, the enzyme, Ideonella Sakaiensis has the ability to break down one of the most commonly used plastic, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). The discovery of a plastic-eating enzyme was made at a recycling centre in Japan, and it was later improved to make it more effective in decomposing plastic. As more time is put into further development, researchers are optimistic that the enzyme can be used on a wider scale during the industrial recycling process. Although PET is use everywhere around us, it is not biodegradable and takes beyond a human’s lifespan to breakdown. In the context of this article, global PET recycling efforts should primarily rely on the use of plastic-eating enzyme instead of traditional methods to reduce pollution, plastic waste, and the process time of recycling.

One of the benefits of plastic-eating enzyme is their ability to promote a more environmentally sustainable solution to dispose plastic. Plastic-eating enzyme uses a biological process called “circular process” to break down plastic into smaller parts and chemically transforms them into reusable plastic (Mike Snider, 2022), which is more environmentally friendly. In comparison to traditional methods such as incineration, it is known to emit harmful pollutants into the atmosphere (Tasos Kokkinidis, 2022).

Moreover, plastic-eating enzyme promotes circular economy by reducing plastic waste sent to landfills. Since the plastic-eating enzyme is able to break down plastic into molecules, it gives the opportunity to produce same or even higher quality plastic (Michael Marshall, 2022). By utilizing plastic-eating enzyme, not only is the reliance on landfills reduced, but new economic opportunities for the recycling industry are also created, as plastic is able to be reused to its fullest extent.

Another benefit of using plastic-eating enzyme is that it shortens the duration needed for recycling plastic waste. According to the article “This AI-Designed Enzyme Can Devour Plastic Trash in Hours: Video” (David Vetter, 2022), the total time required for waste plastic to be broken down by plastic-eating enzyme is below 24 hours while the traditional method of recycling could take centuries to do so as it has many steps and processes that needs to be carried out before the plastic can be reused. With the help of plastic-eating enzymes, the recycling process is significantly faster and more efficient.

However, one of the major drawbacks of using plastic-eating enzymes to reduce plastic waste is that they often only work under specific conditions such as specific temperatures, environments, or even time periods (Toby Muresianu, 2022). This can make it challenging to implement plastic-eating enzyme as it can be costly and inconvenient at large industrial scale, particularly when the conditions required are difficult to create.

In conclusion, the discovery of plastic-eating enzymes provides an effective way to reduce plastic waste and promote sustainability. The use of plastic-eating enzyme offers several benefits over traditional methods, such as reducing the amount of plastic waste sent to landfills, being more environmentally friendly and shortening the duration needed for recycling plastic waste. However, there are limitations of plastic-eating enzymes which make it difficult to implement it on a large scale. Despite this, the potential benefits of plastic-eating enzymes far outweigh the drawbacks and by relying on plastic-eating enzymes, the world can reduce its reliance on traditional recycling and take steps towards a greener future.

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

References

UT News. (2022, April 27). Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste. https://news.utexas.edu/2022/04/27/plastic-eating-enzyme-could-eliminate-billions-of-tons-of-landfill-waste/

Mike Snider. (2022, May 3). A plastic-eating enzyme could help clean up landfills by breaking down bottles, containers. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/03/plastic-eating-enzyme-pollution/9633254002/

Tasos Kokkinidis. (2022, May 5). Plastic Eating Enzyme Could Help Reduce World Pollution. https://greekreporter.com/2022/05/05/plastic-eating-enzyme/

Michael Marshall. (2022, February 5). How ‘super-enzymes’ that eat plastics could curb our waste problem. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/05/how-super-enzymes-that-eat-plastics-could-curb-our-waste-problem

David Vetter. (2022, April 28). This AI-Designed Enzyme Can Devour Plastic Trash In Hours: Video. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2022/04/28/scientists-use-ai-to-make-an-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-trash-in-hours-video/?sh=c9d7a05da6b7

Toby Muresianu. (2022, May 28). Why haven’t plastic-eating bacteria fixed the plastic problem yet?. https://www.freethink.com/energy/plastic-eating-bacteria#:~:text=They%20cost%20too%20much.,plastic%20is%20already%20really%20cheap.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Descriptive Reflection (Formal Introductory Letter)

Subject: Self-introduction Dear Professor Brad Blackstone, My name is Jethro Lim Zhi Heng, a first-year mechanical design and manufacturing student, and I'm presently enrolled in your Critical Thinking and Communicating class. I am writing to introduce myself and share with you some goals I hope to achieve in this module. During my secondary school days, I would always find myself dismantling old or spoiled electronic devices found at home as I was curious to see what was inside and was interested in finding the functions of each part. Ever since I had that pique of curiosity and interest, I embarked on my journey in the pursuit of engineering. I enrolled in higher nitec in Electronics Engineering, Institute of Technical Education to learn and gain an understanding of basic electronics systems. Furthermore, I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of engineering and broaden my perspective on how engineering and business are complimentary. So, I took a diploma in Engineering with Bus...
Read more

Summary Reader Response Draft 4

According to the article “Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste” (UT News, 2022), scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have discovered a plastic-eating enzyme that could potentially eliminate tons of plastic waste. From the article, the enzyme, Ideonella Sakaiensis has the ability to break down one of the most commonly used plastics, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). The discovery of a plastic-eating enzyme was made at a recycling centre in Japan, and it was later improved to make it more effective in decomposing plastic. As more time is put into further development, researchers are optimistic that the enzyme can be used on a wider scale during the industrial recycling process. Although PET is used everywhere around the world, it is not biodegradable and takes beyond a human’s lifespan to break down. In my opinion, global PET recycling efforts should primarily rely on the benefits of plastic-eating enzymes instead of traditional methods t...
Read more

Critical Reflection

Module learning At the start of the module, the goals that I hope to achieve were overcoming public speaking and obtaining professional writing skills. I also aim to establish good relationship with my peers in class and team members to facilitate a fruitful learning experience. While attending Prof Brad’s lecture, I was given the chance to participate in the class activity as he encourages us to read out paragraphs and interact with peers. I realise that I had a bad habit of hesitating before I speak and did not have the confidence to interact with peers in a class. Participating in various class activity slowly builds up my confidence in speaking and I started to be more comfortable in communicating with a larger audience. With the help of instructional unit 4 and the summary reader response, I learn and gain the ability to paraphrase and summarize text or articles. Although it is still not fully refined, it has aided me in becoming more acquainted with the correct format and avoid...
Read more