Researchers from the universities of Kiel, Hamburg and Düsseldorf have, with the help of complex analysis methods, identified in a database with water specimens from all over the world an enzyme that stems from bacteria from prehistoric times – so-called archaea – in the deep waters off Venezuela. The newly discovered enzyme PET46 is said to be able, unlike the previously known biocatalysts with the ability to break down plastics, to withstand warm temperatures and consequently to break down the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic more quickly. According to the research team, this special characteristic and other biochemical properties make PET46 a highly interesting candidate to combat plastic pollution, both in the sea and on the land.

The member states of the United Nations want to put an end to environmental pollution through plastic waste by 2040. An initial draft for the agreement was presented at the third meeting of the inter-state negotiating committee that aimed to draw up an international legal instrument to combat plastic pollution (INC-3). The meeting was held from 13 – 19 November 2023 at the headquarters of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. Consensus on the next steps that were needed to draw up the agreement was, however, not reached in Nairobi. The biggest point of contention is whether the agreement should provide for a limit to the amount of plastics produced.

Rainer Zies is Managing Director of MKV GmbH Kunststoffgranulate, a medium-sized family-run company in the German Bundesland Hessia. It is specialised in the recycling and compounding of waste plastics from technical applications. As a member of the board of the TecPart association for technical plastic products, Rainer Zies plays an active role for the industry and represents the industry’s interests in public and in politics and also on national and European committees. Apart from that, Rainer Zies is a member of the Technical Committee of BKV GmbH and of the sustainability committee of IHK Frankfurt. Finally, he works on normative basis for the mechanical recycling of plastics in a working group of the plastics committee within DIN, the German Institute for Standardization. There, he is one of the co-authors of DIN SPEC 91446, which describes the quality levels for plastic recyclates.

The aim of the Austrian social & green tech company, Plasticpreneur GmbH, based in Klagenfurt, is to create low-threshold, inexpensive access to the recycling of plastics. For this purpose, the company, which was founded in January 2020, has developed small-scale plastics recycling machines and moulding tools, which are said to be in use through the world.