Bacteria that can degrade ... conditions that lead to biological degradation of industrial equipment, and hope for a potential means of breaking down plastic waste. PET is a widely used plastic ...

Aristilde’s team further identified a specific enzyme used by the bacteria to break down PET. To confirm the enzyme’s role in plastic degradation, they created bacterial cells without this ...

The study, "Degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics by wastewater bacteria engineered via conjugation," was published in the U.S.-based journal Microbial Biotechnology.