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Podcast: Engineering Matters
Episode: #3 Worms and plastic: a waste treatment revolution
Description: The UK in now at war with waste plastic creating major new opportunities for the waste industry. In January Prime Minister Theresa May published a new 25 year Environment Plan which pledged to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042. Increasing recycling rates, using biodegradable materials and reusing plastic are all parts of the strategy but what if all plastics could be made to biodegrade under the right treatment conditions? Well this just might be possible. There is already a unique bioreactor that can really do this. Its unique combination of microbes and enzymes can break plastic down into carbon dioxide...