Dr Grażyna Dąbrowska of the Nicolaus Copernicus University, head of the Department of Genetics at the Faculty of Biological and Veterinary Sciences in Toruń, has developed a biological, fully environmentally safe agent accelerating the decomposition of plastic – PETstop.
The fungi contained in PETstop have the ability to produce hydrolytic enzymes that cut hydrogen bonds in plastics, and then activate entire metabolic pathways to degrade xenobiotics. At the same time, at the first stage of colonization, fungi produce proteins responsible for adhering to plastic, and the entire complex biological machine starts.
The researcher from Toruń tested the effectiveness of her preparation on one of the most popular materials: the most difficult to degradable PE, i.e. polyethylene, PET i.e. polyethylene terephthalate, and biodegradable PLA materials – polylactide and PCL – polycaprolactone. The PETstop invention has been awarded many times in Poland and in the world.
