TED Talks

Morgan Vague: These bacteria eat plastic (2019x123)

Air date: May 28, 2019

Humans produce 300 million tons of new plastic each year — yet, despite our best efforts, less than 10 percent of it ends up being recycled. Is there a better way to deal with all this waste? Morgan Vague describes her research with microbiologist Jay Mellies on bacteria that have evolved the unexpected ability to eat plastic — and how they could help us solve our growing pollution problem.