Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have been able to upcycle plastic bottles into vanillin – the primary source for the taste and smell of vanilla and the key to creating artificial vanilla flavoring, which is in common use in foods, perfumes, and pharmaceuticals.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
According to Food and Wine magazine, the researchers used genetically modified E. coli bacteria to turn plastic bottles into vanillin, although further experiments are necessary to ensure such plastic-derived vanillin is safe for human consumption.
Vanillin is extensively used in the food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical industries "and is an important bulk chemical used to make pharmaceuticals, cleaning products and herbicides," the report noted.
Artificial vanillin is often used as a substitute for vanilla that is extracted naturally from beans. Over 80% of the world's vanilla is grown in Madagascar, but weather troubles that have plagued the island in recent years have affected crops, sending vanilla prices soaring.
At the height of the vanilla crisis in 2018, the prices of vanilla beans spiked to nearly $600 a kilogram – about $60 more than the price of precious silver.
Global demand for vanilla beans, however, is constantly growing and far exceeds the supply from natural vanilla beans. According to The Guardian, about 85% of vanillin is currently synthesized from chemicals derived from fossil fuels.
The research originally appeared in Green Chemistry journal, published by the UK's Royal Society of Chemistry.
"This is a really interesting use of microbial science at the molecular level to improve sustainability and work towards a circular economy," Ellis Crawford, publishing editor at the Royal Society of Chemistry, was quoted as saying. "Using microbes to turn waste plastics, which are harmful to the environment, into an important commodity and platform molecule with broad applications in cosmetics and food is a beautiful demonstration of green chemistry."
Joanna Sadler of the University of Edinburgh was quoted by British media as saying, "This is the first example of using a biological system to upcycle plastic waste into a valuable industrial chemical and it has very exciting implications for the circular economy."
Stephen Wallace, also of the University of Edinburgh, noted: "Our work challenges the perception of plastic being a problematic waste and instead demonstrates its use as a new carbon resource from which high-value products can be made."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
