A plastic fishing line might take 600 years to break down in nature or a landfill. A plastic bottle might take 450 years. Dental floss might take decades. But in a Harvard lab, a recently discovered microbe can begin to break down virtually any type of plastic within days.
Breaking, a new startup, is now turning the discovery into a service that can clean up plastic pollution. “It was a huge breakthrough, and we realized the science and technology should not just stay within the lab,” says CEO and cofounder Sukanya Punthambaker. The work started at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Then it was incubated by Colossal Biosciences, the company known for using gene editing to try to bring back extinct species.
Bio-prospecting for plastic-eating organisms
To find the microbe, the scientists spent a year “bio-prospecting” in landfills, ponds, and other sites filled with plastic waste, collecting samples they hoped would contain organisms that have evolved to naturally consume plastic. “We collect samples, bring them to the lab, and then we test them for their ability to grow on plastic,” says Punthambaker.
In the past, other studies have discovered microbes that can eat specific types of plastic. But the microbe they discovered—which they call X-32—is unique in that it can break down all major types of plastic. It breaks down the chemical bonds, leaving only water, CO2, and biomass.
In its natural form, X-32 starts to break down plastic within five days, and then consumes around 90% of it in around 22 months. But the startup’s researchers are now using genetic engineering to help speed up the process. The team wants to “condense that number down to a few days or even a few hours,” Punthambaker says. Artificial intelligence is helping the team analyze the enzymes in the microbe to understand which play a role in breaking down plastic. AI also helps predict how to change an enzyme so it works more efficiently.
The business model: eliminating plastic
Carbios, another startup, uses an enzyme from bacteria to break down one type of plastic, PET, so it can be recycled into new plastic. (Carbios is currently building its first large-scale recycling plant.) Breaking is taking a different approach.
“We’re really looking at the next step: For plastic waste, how do we degrade it and eliminate it?” says Kent Wakeford, cofounder and executive chairman of Breaking. “There are certain plastics that are going to be very conducive to a recycling system, which is great. But there are still 5 billion tons of plastic on our planet, and about 400 million tons being created every year, that unfortunately are not going to be recycled.”
One of the first customers for the service will likely be industrial composting facilities. Plastic waste often contaminates the waste, meaning that some food can’t be composted. “The goal there is to enable composting facilities to take in more food waste so that they can create more fertilizer as an end product that they sell,” says Wakeford. A machine will spray the microbes or enzymes into compost piles to break down plastic.
At wastewater treatment plants, the microbes or enzymes can also help eliminate microplastics. They could also be used at landfills and in agriculture. Eventually, the company hopes to find ways to clean up plastic that’s already in nature—for example, in rivers where huge amounts of plastic waste flow to the ocean.
This year, the startup plans to run pilot programs testing how the microbes can work in various industries. By 2025, Wakeford says, the company plans to begin large-scale commercialization.