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
MIPLACE holds its fourth general assembly
25/11/21 - MIPLACE partners met remotely today for another very successful general assembly. There were excellent presentations describing the progress made towards: microbial hydrolysis of PET and PU; engineering synthetic [...]
MIPLACE highlighted at Synthetic Biology UK 2021
11/11/21 – We are pleased to announce that our partner, Alice Banks, will be presenting ‘Engineering polyethylene terephthalate (PET) degradation and utilisation in environmentally isolated bacteria’ at the forthcoming Synthetic [...]
MIPLACE highlighted in Nature Biotechnology
11/11/21 - 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. You [...]
MIPLACE presentation at the BioTech Research and Innovation Hack 2021
04/11/21 - In September, project coordinator Jose Jimenez presented the progress made in the MIPLACE project at the 'BioTech Research and Innovation Hack 2021: Biotechnology for a Sustainable Bioeconomy' which [...]
MIPLACE represented at SfAM Sustainable Microbiology webinar series
04/10/21 – We are pleased to announce that our partner, Alice Banks, will be participating in the Sustainable microbiology: the future of combatting climate change webinar series, hosted by the [...]
MIPLACE partner to speak at BIEA Awards Ceremony
21/09/21 - We are delighted to announce that our partner, Alice Banks, will be giving an overview of her research into the upcycling of plastic waste as part of the [...]
PARTNERS
MIPLACE project is funded under the 2nd ERA BioTech Joint Transnational Call