28/07/21 – A paper documenting an important step towards the development of a sustainable recycling pathway for polyurethane (PU) has been published by the Bioteam at the University of Strasbourg. Recycling polyurethanes by biological methods can be challenging due to, amongst other things, a diverse range of chemical compositions (polyester- and polyether-based PU) and structures (foams and thermoplastics). However, this paper describes an efficient laccase-mediated system (LMS) relevant for the degradation of different types of polyurethanes and how enzymatic degradation has been demonstrated for the first time on a polyether-based PU foam. A link to the paper can be found here.
