Page 80 - Plastics News July 2025
P. 80
PRODUCT NEWS
Scientists use bacteria to turn plastic
waste into paracetamol
enetically modified E coli used to create Writing in the journal Nature Chemistry, Wallace
painkillers from material produced from and colleagues report how they discovered that
Gplastic bottles a type of chemical reaction called a Lossen rear-
rangement, a process that has never been seen
Bacteria can be used to turn plastic waste into in nature, was biocompatible. In other words,
painkillers, researchers have found, opening up it could be carried out in the presence of living
the possibility of a more sustainable process for cells without harming them.
The team made their
discovery when they
took polyethylene tere-
phthalate (PET) – a type
of plastic often found in
food packaging and bot-
tles – and, using sustain-
able chemical methods,
converted it into a new
material.
When the researchers
producing the drugs. incubated this mate-
rial with a harmless strain of E coli they found
Chemists have discovered E coli can be used it was converted into another substance known
to create paracetamol, also known as acetami- as Paba in a process that must have involved a
nophen, from a material produced in the labora- Lossen rearrangement.
tory from plastic bottles.
Crucially, while the Lossen rearrangement typi-
“People don’t realise that paracetamol comes cally involves harsh laboratory conditions, it oc-
from oil currently,” said Prof Stephen Wallace, curred spontaneously in the presence of the E
the lead author of the research from the Univer- coli, with the researchers discovering it was cat-
sity of Edinburgh. “What this technology shows alysed by phosphate within the cells themselves.
is that by merging chemistry and biology in this
way for the first time, we can make paraceta- The team add that Paba is an essential substance
mol more sustainably and clean up plastic waste that bacteria need for growth, in particular the
from the environment at the same time.” synthesis of DNA, and is usually made within the
80 PLASTICS NEWS July 2025
