46. Plastic waste eaten by enzymes

Where were microparticles of plastic found?

• Only in oceans
• Inside bananas
• At the top of Mount Everest
• On Mars

What is chemical recycling?

• Melting plastic
• Burying plastic
• Using enzymes to break plastic into building blocks
• Burning plastic

What does the term “incinerate” mean?

• Freeze
• Cut into pieces
• Burn
• Recycle

What is a landfill?

• A recycling centre
• A place where plastic is stored
• An area where waste is buried
• A compost pile

Why is recycling sometimes called “downcycling”?

• It increases product value
• It breaks plastic into stronger parts
• It creates lower quality products
• It uses gravity

What does “brittle” mean?

• Flexible
• Soft and warm
• Easily broken
• Hard and strong

What are enzymes?

• Animals
• Machines
• Chemicals that cause reactions
• Toxins

What plastic was considered too strong for enzymes?

• Paper
• PET
• Rubber
• Cotton

What organism did Sintawee Sulaiman discover?

• Compost bacteria
• Mouldy bread
• Leaf-branch compost cutinase (LCC)
• Soil worm

What did the LCC enzyme do overnight?

• Changed colour
• Created plastic
• Ate the plastic
• Melted the lab