From bottles to bakery: How scientists create edible cookies from recycled plastic

New research at the American Chemical Society meeting showcased a potentially edible cookie made out of — plastic! NPR Science LISTEN & FOLLOW NPR App Apple Podcasts Spotify Amazon Music iHeart Radio RSS link Science From bottles to bakery: How scientists create edible cookies from recycled plastic September 5, 20267:43 AM ET Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday Ari Daniel From bottles to bakery: How scientists create edible cookies from recycled plastic Listen · Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www. npr. org/player/embed/nx-s1-5947227-e1/nx-s1-9915514" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript New research at the American Chemical Society meeting showcased a potentially edible cookie made out of — plastic! Transcript SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Plastic pollution is a major problem 'round the globe. What if we could recycle some of that plastic ? NPR science reporter Ari Daniel tells us about researchers who use plastic to make cookies. Didn't get to taste them, though. ARI DANIEL, BYLINE: Transforming plastic into a snack may sound a little tough to swallow. But Lahiru Jayakody, a synthetic microbiologist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, says, just think of a cow. LAHIRU JAYAKODY: Can you eat grass? But cow take the grass, and it produce milk. We use milk to make many, many different product. DANIEL: In other words, living creatures are like chemistry labs, converting raw ingredients into new materials. Microbes excel at this kind of thing, so Jayakody decided to try genetically engineering yeast to digest plastic - specifically the kind often used in water bottles and food packaging. D. student Sandhya Jayasekara first took the intact plastic, along with ground-up corn husks and stalks, and broke it all down into simpler molecules. SANDHYA JAYASEKARA: So those molecules are available as a food for the yeast. DANIEL: She then gave it to the yeast, which processed this mix of disintegrated plastic and corn to make a gluey protein paste, which Jayasekara mixed with vanilla and beta-carotene that were produced , like oatmeal. A 3D food printer then turned that slurry into small cookies. JAYAKODY: There is no micro- or nanoplastic embedded into this cookie. So we are not eating plastic. DANIEL: Nor has anyone actually eaten the cookie yet. There are still safety tests to be done. The process is pricey, uses a lot of energy, and not much of the plastic makes it into the final cookie. JAYAKODY: This is a proof of concept, right?