A super-enzyme found in compost can eat through plastic bottles three times faster than anything else.
April 15, 2026
Original Paper
Discovery and engineering of a compost-derived thermophilic BHETase for enhanced depolymerization of post-consumer PET
SSRN · 6578016
The Takeaway
We’ve been struggling for decades to find a biological way to recycle plastic that is actually efficient enough to use. Scientists just engineered a heat-loving enzyme from compost bacteria that can tear apart untreated plastic bottles with incredible speed. When paired with another enzyme, it increased the breakdown of post-consumer plastic by 3-fold compared to previous methods. This isn't just a lab curiosity; it works on the actual, dirty plastic bottles people throw in the trash. It could turn plastic from a permanent pollutant into a circular resource that we can break down and reuse forever. We're finally finding nature's way to clean up our mess.
From the abstract
The accumulation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste urgently demands sustainable recycling technologies. Enzymatic depolymerization represents an eco-friendly approach, but its efficiency is frequently hampered by product inhibition, as accumulated oligomeric intermediates such as bis-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET) suppress the activity of backbone-degrading PET hydrolases. Herein, we report the identification and engineering of a thermophilic BHETase from a compost-derived thermop