Acetaminophen, aka Tylenol, aka paracetamol is one of the most commonly used pain relievers in the world.
Now we have a new way to make it, out of plastic that might otherwise end up in landfills.
A team at the University of Edinburgh has been working with a type of plastic known as polyethylene terephthalate, or PET.
It’s used in lots and lots of food and drink packaging, and while it can be recycled, it’s not the most eco-friendly process in the world.
The researchers discovered a more eco-friendly way to deal with PET: a genetically modified version of E. coli.
This version of the bacteria doesn’t make humans queasy, but thanks to its added genes from mushrooms and soil bacteria, it does break down a key compound in the PET plastic into the active ingredient in acetaminophen.
The team even came up with a fermentation process that’s similar to brewing beer so that the transformation process takes less than 24 hours.
And making the medicine this way is considerably less carbon-intensive than the usual methods.
All of which sounds promising, but there’s still a lot of testing to do to figure out the best way to scale this process up.
So don’t show up at the lab or the medicine factory with a big pile of your used plastics, at this point they’re not ready for them.
Starting Friday in South Dakota, it’s Clark Potato Days.
The town that calls itself South Dakota’s Potato Capital has been holding this event since 1992.
Over the years they’ve added a potato decorating contest, visits from Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and mashed potato wrestling.
Microbes transform plastic waste into paracetamol (University of Edinburgh)
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