Hungarian Invention to Completely Degrade Plastic

Two young Hungarians produced a bacterium cocktail, unique in the world, which can break down any disposable plastic in seven weeks.

They are now embarking on industrial testing, after Vespucci Partners in Budapest and American Techstars, one of the world's most renowned international accelerators, have also invested in a biotech startup called Poliloop, the Hungarian edition of Forbes reports.

As pharmaceutical chemist engineer PhD students Liz Madaras and Krisztina Lévay, the creators of Poliloop point out on the company's website, they aim to offer an industrially relevant solution to deal with unrecyclable plastics "by mimicking nature, using the once polluting plastic waste as a carbon rich foodsource for our bacteria, who in turn create valuable end-product for us to use and integrate into a global circular ecosystem."

They created a bacterial cocktail that consumes plastic packaging waste. These bacteria can use the carbon in plastic as a sole carbon source, integrating it into their metabolism. The process is akin to the way organic waste is consumed in composting piles, but the raw materials here are fossil based. "What our bacteria have achieved is turning what was once a fossil-based product (plastic packaging) into what it originally was, millions of years ago, part of the natural ecosystem of Earth."