Developing 100 Percent Biodegradable Plastics from Bacteria
His idea is to use bacteria to make plastics, specifically employing cyanobacteria, a photosynthesis-happy bug, as one of the starting materials. Weiss recently published a paper in Metabolic Engineering that outlines a new production method that would be powered by cyanobacteria and the naturally occurring Halomonas boliviensis. Weiss recently joined ASU’s Polytechnic campus, where he will work on scaling up the process at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology and Innovation (AzCATI). Here, Weiss describes his idea for making environmentally friendly bioplastics. Present Issues with Today’s Plastics Plastics fall into two very distinct categories: Those that can be melted down and reused Those that cannot be reused Recycling some plastics can save energy, but all plastics don’t ultimately degrade like biological materials down to “nothingness” or become metabolized by a living creature. Most plastics degrade like rocks: They just break down into smaller a