BGN Technologies Announces Research Collaboration Agreement with ECOIBÉRIA in the Field of Plastic Recycling by Bacteria

BGN Technologies, the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), announced today that it had signed a research collaboration agreement with ECOIBÉRIA in the field of plastic recycling by bacteria, based on research from the team of Prof. Ariel Kushmaro and Prof. Alex Sivan, both from the Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology and Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering at BGU. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the most abundantly used polymer in the world, with multiple applications in the textile industry as well as in food and beverage packaging. It is estimated that about 56 million tons of PET are produced yearly worldwide, mostly as single use packaging material. Therefore, intense efforts are directed towards recycling and reuse of the PET plastic materials. Prof.'s Kushmaro and Sivan and their team have been studying plastic biodegradation and have discovered several bacteria species that are able to biodegrade polyethylene, which was previously considered a non-biodegradable plastic mainly because of the highly stable carbon−carbon (C−C) bonds of the polymer backbone. Based on these findings, the research collaboration project will assess the biodegradation of PET by  previously identified bacteria as well as novel ones, with the aim of developing an efficient biodegradation process of PET whose products will be used as raw materials for recycled PET in the future.