The plastic emergency
Plastics are essential materials in our lives, but they show a problem: they are difficult to degrade. As a consequence, 79% of the plastic waste is stored in landfills or released into the environment.
Taking advantage of microbes
Some bacteria can degrade common plastics such as polyethylene (PET) or polyurethane (PU) by secreting enzymes. In addition, certain species can be modified to use these materials as food to obtain energy.
A circular solution
MIPLACE will develop a process that uses plastic waste as a feedstock for engineered microbial communities. These microbes will transform it into the raw materials used to create a sustainable plastic, Bio-PU, that can enter the cycle once thrown away.
LATEST NEWS
Introducing MIPLACE at GRIPS 2021
18/03/21 – MIPLACE was introduced in the Enzymatic Recycling session at the Global Research and Innovation in Plastics Sustainability (GRIPS) conference this week. Project Coordinator, Jose Jimenez, described the aim [...]
MIPLACE reaches competition final at GRIPS 2021
18/03/21 – The poster ‘polyethylene terephthalate (PET) monomer metabolism and adaptation in environmentally isolated bacteria’ presented by Research Associate, Alice Banks, was well-received at the Global Research and Innovation in [...]
MIPLACE highlighted in Nature Biotechnology
24/05/20 - Our project has been highlighted in a perspective piece at Nature Biotechnology as one of the groundbreaking initiatives dealing with PET waste by harnessing the potential of microorganisms. [...]
A green recycling process for polyurethane foams by a chem-biotech approach
11/03/21 – a new paper that addresses the challenge of recycling polyurethane (PU) foam has been published by the BioTeam at the University of Strasbourg. The paper describes how both [...]
MIPLACE to be introduced at GRIPS 2021
03/03/21 – MIPLACE and its approach to the bio-upcycling of plastic waste will be introduced by the project coordinator, Jose Jimenez, at the forthcoming Global Research and Innovation in Plastics [...]
Upcycling PET monomers into bioplastic PHA
20/01/21 - MIPLACE has contributed to a new publication that describes how the microorganism, Pseudomonas umsongensis, can upcycle monomers of the commonly used plastic, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), into the biodegradable plastic, [...]
PARTNERS
MIPLACE project is funded under the 2nd ERA BioTech Joint Transnational Call