GOLDEN, COLORADO — Researchers from the U.S. and Britain say they have created a plastic-eating enzyme that could be used aide in the recovery and recycling of plastics. <br /><br />The enzyme is able to digest polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastic. PET plastics take hundreds of years to breakdown and have become an enormous source of pollution, according to Reuters.<br /><br />The findings were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. <br /><br />Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Britain's University of Portsmouth made the discovery while looking at the structure of a natural enzyme believed to have evolved in a recycling plant in Japan.<br /><br />Researchers added some amino acids to the enzyme which ended up speeding up its plastic-eating capabilities. <br /><br />The team will now work on improving the enzyme to see if it's capable to breaking down PET plastics on an industrial scale.
