Preventing Plastic Pollution with Engineering Biology (P3EB) Mission Hub

The Preventing Plastic Pollution with Engineering Biology (P3EB) Mission Hub aims to tackle the pressing environmental challenge of plastic pollution by coupling engineering biology with complementary disciplines in the plastic waste field. Our consortium of leading researchers and innovators seeks to unlock the chemical resource in used plastics, converting problematic waste streams into valuable commodity feedstocks. By expanding our biology platforms, we will establish technologically viable, economically favourable, and environmentally friendly pathways for polymer deconstruction and recycling. In the P3EB Mission Hub, our focus is on polymers in which the monomers are linked by C-O or C-N bonds. In principle, these are more sustainable than those with only C-C bonds, but we need to engineer more efficient enzymes and processes to break them down.