Biodegrading plastics with a synthetic non-biodegradable enzyme

Biodegradation of plastics through the use enzymes provides an attractive, environmentally friendly solution to dispose and recycle plastic wastes. Although many natural engineered plastic-degrading have been developed, their practical applications are hindered by biodegradation in open environments. We reasoned that most popularly used plastics, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), achiral hence can be hydrolyzed both l- d-amino acid versions enzymes. Here, we chemically synthesized a mirror-image version 231-aa PET hydrolase, which is capable efficiently degrading variety PET, polybutylene (PBT), succinate (PBS) but meanwhile itself resistant soil extract seawater from environment. The synthetic hydrolase demonstrates potential new class plastic-degrading, non-biodegradable help address pollution problem our homochiral biosphere.