A super-enzyme found in compost can eat through plastic bottles three times faster than anything else.

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.