Overview

Our project has many different aspects and we would like you to see them all. So you do not miss anything here is a brief overview to help you get orientated.

The MAPLE System Modules:

Our project is Plasticity. The project can be divided into 3 modules. Firstly, we designed a waste degradation module. which breaks down materials which cannot be recycled, producing valuable chemicals and a feedstock for bacteria to be used in the production of the bioplastic poly hydroxybutyrate. In order to do this we are breaking down [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyurethane Polyurethane] in mixed waste and using what remains as the feedstock. We have also developed systems to deal with end of life bioplastics to recover the resources which go into them and reduce the need for virgin materials to be used. Our design synthesises and breaks down polyhydroxybutyrate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polylactic_acid PLA] degradation, and Poly-3-HydroxyButyrate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhydroxybutyrate P3HB] degradation. As many plastic products are produced as mixed plastics, this conglomerate of degradative bacteria will successfully degrade petrochemical plastics and bioplastics. In addition to this, using our second module, we will have bioplastic recycling. We intend to synthesise P3HB, a bioplastic from its constituent monomers, that are in themselves, a byproduct of our degradation pathway. The third is the secretion toolkit. This will incorporate the existing secretion biobricks contained within the registry along with those that we have designed and chemically synthesised. These will be transformed into a plasmid in our chassis, E. coli. This will thus permit any future iGEM team to extract their desired secretion tags for use in their construct. With the addition of characterisation data, this will provide a thorough platform to inform decision making for secretion tags.

Achievements

We have proven that MG1655 can live and flourish in SRF.

A Project for the World Today

We have consulted with many different people and organisations in the course of the project. All have helped shape what we have done. We have spoken to waste recovery companies, bioplastic producers and the waste management team for the Greater London Authority. This has ensured that we are producing an appropriate solution to a genuine problem in a commercially realistic way.

A Project for the World Tomorrow

Technologies change us and we change technologies. We have carefully considered how our system will be received and how it might change with the future needs of society.

Waste management requires more than technological solutions

Through discussions with social scientists and waste management legislators we have discovered that solutions to deal with waste after it has been produced are only part of the solution to the waste issue. This has led us to devise several methods by which we can communicate the need to reduce the production of waste in the first place.

Collaborations

We have collaborated with several different teams throughout the competition.