Engineers have developed a new approach to plastic recycling. The new method was presented in a study as a proof-of-concept. The approach is inspired by how nature naturally ‘recycles’ organic polymers into different proteins. These building blocks within organic polymers are broken down into parts and reassembled. Following this thought, researchers established the “nature-inspired circular-economy recycling", or NaCRe.
Through NaCRe, the scientists involved in the study were able to turn the proteins from silk into green fluorescent protein, which is a glowing tracer used in biomedical research. Learn more about this new method of recycling here!
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