Team:Imperial College

We are engineering microbes to make environmentally friendly plastics from rubbish.

           


    

        

        

        

    
  
  
    

      
        

            
            

                
Europe's Newest Mountain, Mount Wasted
                

            
        
        
        
        

            
            

                
Stressed Ecoli
                
Production of the red pigment by stress induction. MG1655 were grown with LB media and sterile filtrated WCM for 48 hours.
            
        
        
        

            
            

                
Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF)
                

            
        
    
    
  
    
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Accumulation of waste represents a considerable problem to humanity. Over the next 50 years, the global community will produce approximately 2 trillion tonnes of waste, or 2.5 times the weight of Mount Everest.

Traditionally, mixed non-recyclable waste is sent to landfill or for incineration, both of which result in environmental damage. The detrimental effects are perpetrated by the plastic degradation into toxic byproducts and the production of greenhouse gases by these processes. We propose to upcycle this mixed waste into the bioplastic poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (P3HB) to create a closed loop recycling system. Our engineered E. coli will operate within sealed bioreactors. In the future we picture the use of our system in a variety of contexts as part of our M.A.P.L.E. (Modular And Plastic Looping E.coli) system.