Researchers engineer ‘biorobots’ to break down microplastics
An interdisciplinary research team has engineered bacteria commonly found in wastewater treatment plants to break down harmful microplastics before they make their way into the environment.
The team, which includes members from the faculties of Engineering and Math at the University of Waterloo, added DNA to several species of bacteria to enable them to biodegrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics, which take hundreds of years to degrade in the environment.