Abstract 1066 Enzymes for plastics deconstruction

Synthetic polymers that contain C–O and C–N linkages in their backbones, such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET), polyamides, and polyurethanes, are potential substrates for enzymatic recycling of waste plastics. Enabled by advances in machine learning tools and high-throughput expression, purification, and assaying pipelines for new enzymes, this talk will cover our efforts in enzyme discovery, engineering, and design for the depolymerization of these three classes of waste plastics. Consideration of process economics, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions (and other environmental impacts consierations) will also be discussed, with the intention that enzyme engineering efforts can focus on the most process-relevant challenges. Overall, the depolymerization of waste plastics that contain backbone C–O and C–N bonds to recoverable and recyclable building blocks is a potentially promising strategy to contribute towards plastics circularity.