There are microbes that look at a plastic bottle and go, “Yum”. Do you think you’d ever look at a protein powder made from those [microbes] and go “Yum” too?

Researchers at Michigan Technological University are looking to turn plastic into protein, with funding from the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. In 2023, they described their process in a paper published in the journal Trends in Biotechnology.

So far, in a lab, the plastic has been converted into an oil-like compound using heat to deconstruct the polymer chains. This compound is then fed to oil-eating bacteria, which leave behind a sludge that resembles a yeast byproduct. This sludge is dried out and turned into an edible powder. Achieving scale should be as simple as putting plastic in at one end and getting powder out of the other, Stephen Techtmann, an assistant professor of biological sciences who is leading the project, has said in a statement.

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