A super fast food. Appreciated by busy students. The growth, paste, and hubs are packaged in plastic. A for an e, you competition, agree for graduate students took on a challenge. Could this evening be packaged in something non plastic and edible, maybe x l d s and i know not actually part of the eggs that we can see, but thats still an important resource for us. Because to us, they also contain Interesting Properties that could help us create better Food Packaging people. Thats of the items often have for him come with a hard boiled soft roll, fix it delivered in their own ideal packaging that plentiful every year. Germans alone, each 20000000000 of them, so team edgy decided to focus its research on itself from the university of horn high and they still got. Its one of the best in germany for food science with a life that makes all kinds of experiments possible. The team spent 9 months conducting intensive research into edible packaging. In that time they perfected the formula. Its made of fine, the ground excels. He didnt sanitize to be, i genic a vegetable protein and a binding agent. The exact composition remains a secret of water mix. Well then poured into a tray, drawing that house in the oven, create that thing so that behaves like a plastic bag. I know the process to go property of the film is that it reacts to heat but can be fused together off at the contents of an audit. This means that can be sealed into separate portions. Its a very simple product, a cup of pasta and a seasoning, sashay at home voltage on the substrate to solve in a split 2nd steroid altogether. And thats it. And environmentally friendly snack. Without Plastic Waste winning edgy the 1st prize and the competition. The size of the packaging succeed in retail, food markets, i would say the chances are 5050. 00 right now. The situation is quite favorable because companies are looking for new solutions. And this is an interesting solution into the front of those on the students that already hoping to get a commercial partner with a view to funding that really still tap a sign until the following day. It was rate to eat my 1st bought needles with all the packaging texts, and evidently sustainable noodles sleep. Create, sustain satisfaction. The we use it for food, water bottles, detergent, plastic is everywhere. But what is plastic exactly . What is it made up and why does it stay in the environment for so long . Its a material thats been part of our lives since we were born. Cheap stereo and practical plastic has assumed various rules over the decades as toys, accessories, utility product and the dream for innovative designers. Plastics consist of large molecules called polymers, which are generally manufactured from mineral oil. The oil is broken down into its constituent components which are then recombined to create synthetic polymer change. The new material has very special qualities which like robust and can be molded into practically any stream you want. But plastics not as easy to dispose of this instead of polymers are almost impossible to break down and degrees extremely slow. The some need 500 to a 1000 years to fully decompose plastic so great from an acid production. But not all of them are made for an oil. The some polymers are naturally occurring and are used to make bio plastic. Cohen, sugarcane and cellulose can be chemically converted into the killer chains with Comparable Properties to boil derived plastics. They degrade easier and even if it takes some time to do so, theres obviously a need for non fossil basic solutions. 90 percent of plastics are manufactured from oil. The amount recycles core qualifying is bio plastic, is not even 10 percent. So were just the plastics that doesnt get recycled and dump. A lot of it enters our rivers and from there its carried out to see our oceans are drowning and plastic. A team of scientists as analyzing what happens to the plastic left and the water these plastic tanks have been floating around in this water for almost 2 years now and theyll be there for at least another 8. 1 of the tanks is filled with fresh water. The other with c will 10. You can see its encoded with quite a layer of salt to see water, certainly having an effect because its part of a long term study being conducted at the university in easton, gemini, and bodies degree in this experiment. And were looking to see how plastic still composed in water, that in particular because we want to know whether they can be recycled after by young and water for years like a fish. The researches from dr. Books, university of applied sciences are especially interested in what long term would you exposure does to normal every day, Plastic Waste. How does it change its structure . How is the surfaces affected . The demonic is generally we concerned with what the material does to the eco system. The water, but were looking at what the water does to long plastic. Can we really get it out of the water and use it again because the dust office and thats the plastic is being exposed to natural influences in as many different environments as possible. These tanks have been floating and the voltage 18 months. Yeah. I just know what does it play as a bond with pocono, of yeah, but we also have 5 homes that them and that see, because you cant recreate that interaction with miss austin. Me the, the team of scientists hoping for lots of new insights, ones that will help us to better find the growing tidal wave of plastic in our patients. New studies and warning of an exponential rise in the amount of trash you know, sees by 2050. That could be more plastic than fish in the sea swimming pool. Yeah. Every year a total of about 300000000. 00 metric tons of plastic is produced. I mean this see me at least 10000000 tons end up in our ocean. So thats the United Nation is estimate. And you could say a truckload of plastic is dumped into the sea every single minute. You think you kept plastic can take hundreds of years to break down. Its practically invincible. In water, it decomposes slowly into micro plastic and then often its not. It sinks down into the depths, the sea and shits. The fits estimated that already 80 percent of plastic is already lying. Im a c bed and can no longer being removed. It slipped thought they would get eaten by worms and all kinds of organisms. All goodness men want to create in short said lions back in our plates by the food chain. Fish via the fish we dont can. I can attend up at home. Many green organizations trying to break this vicious circle. The ocean clean up is probably the best known project. It uses floating structures to capture, learn english. One is one ocean is pursuing a similar goal using phones to gather up the plastic sole dates and recycle it. Then that is the of a wave project which involves trying to remove alicia from rivers before it can even get to the si se puede to putting of heat and fire. On the one hand these projects raise awareness of the issue. Warning us about our use of plastic team quinn stuff and kind of going to is on the same on the other. They are dropped in the ocean and shine by to the dissenting and quinn stores. We are currently dumping into the seas can be removed by any project or with any technology in the world and how school with it and kind of Michelle Steiger agrees. But hes determined to do something to of the plastic, as well as the big projects service, Small Businesses like his attempting to recycle, marine the to he and his team produce rucksacks made completely of plastic from the ocean. Disappear that they were already a lot of Great Projects out there getting the more the better. And we think that all these projects combine are also having an effect on the environment. It was in the philippines, some 100 people got the plastic from the waters off, one of the onto pilot goes on and the Pacific Ocean throws up a lot of trash on the beach is here. Most of the plastic has only been in the water for a few weeks or months. The creek and recycled about 20 percent of the other 80 percent is made up of plastic coated wrapping paper. You cant recycle that anywhere in the world including germany. They are in center ratings. This is the only currently existing way of getting rid of these materials. Only marine thats if im close to the beach, is used to make his rock stocks as its unclear how suitable plastic is this been out at sea for years. In the future science consent new lights on that fucking mach to bug expand, and its currently being carried out until 5 much time as much as the so im, i know for the material is so contaminated for the cleaning and preparing it to get to a point that it could be turned into something new. Its so much effort to 1000 the chances of flight in this trust us. Let me songs on the middle of this research on marine michel, they say its important to them. One thing in mind now is the stuff missing message, the message can be no problem. We can recycle it. We comp thats, thats done. It shouldnt end up at, in the 1st place in black on that stuff done mission on. And we will need to keep on researching a for the next few years to find out what we can do with the plastic. If it does end up that the ideal solution for the worlds waste problems would be a plastic eating pac man. Type need a huge appetite, be able to eat fast and digest plastics like p t thats used for water bottles. Amazingly, scientists have discovered an enzyme that can do just that. Researchers in the city of leipzig have found an enzyme that breaks down plastic very fast. But to work it has to be heated between 60 and 70 degrees celsius. Christie out in sun. And dick is Team Building is biotechnology. Holds the key to our plastic problem. Yes. Out. And we look at how nature does things and then copy it, and not a tree uses enzymes to break down polymers. So thats what were doing it. So the team heads down to one of live 6 main cemeteries. This is where they found their enzyme on a compost heap. Lets see what we find. The research as identified, an enzyme that decomposes leaves, and it can also break down p t plastic. So a lot thats not to worry, we always have a wax like coating formed by an outer layer of q 2, which is a polyester is thats a polymer thats built up by a ester bonds. Just like with p t o. By few and buick and stuff, and this is the same for many bio plastics to e and m. A enzymes are so non specific that they can recognise and break down a broader spectrum of polyesters and inductance. And thats the advantage were lucky to have a biological answer into our plastic problem. Opens up plastic of the infinitive. Christiane design and decor showed us how fast the enzyme works. As long as its capped at 60 to 70 degrees celsius, the p t packaging dissolves completely in one day. All that remains is the basic Building Blocks. The enzyme was a lucky find for the researchers. We have all the t h l 7, c which stands for polyester, hydrolyzed slide 600 on the 7th, the candidate out of the 9 that we found out that was the best performing enzyme. And this is what it looks like. They produced a 3 d printed model to show how the reaction works. I mean its yes, heres the enzyme and heres the key chain with the esther bond, the links that will be broken, the mans im comes like a pac man, and it goes off the individual ester bonds, leading the basic Building Blocks tara folic acid and ethylene glycol, and from them we can make new plastics. I was coming. I mean, im always plastic christy on an deck, his team have now moved on to the next step. They want to modify the enzymes, dna so that each plastic even faster. To do this, theyre experimenting with many different modifications. They analyze each variant individually selecting the most efficient ones for further study. Theyre also turning to modern technology and Artificial Intelligence to help bio technologist ronnie frank is assisting them. So give on, its also no one to scale up our technology. So we have our new prototype here that will allow us to analyze around 100. 00 ends. Im samples at once and were studying multiple layers at the same time. Can i get the ones to document that will generate the data . We need to feed our a. I to then train it to identify new, improved enzymes that can break down plastic as theyre analyzing thousands of enzymes each day in search of a super enzyme. And they have a larger vision to yeah, well, any manufacture ultimately we want to get the market to work more with poly yesterday. That are easy to break down with enzymes and damage that will allow us to develop really efficient circular economies. And now we have no alternative because right now we can cope with the Plastic Waste of money. So were looking to the future and were having a vision of recycling. Plastic waste, sustainable fluid is also not high different. So i think most plastic is made from crude oil, which was produced long before we came along, or norful keentonia from el salvador, such as the question about that. How is crude oil made crude oil wouldnt be possible without the smouldering animals and puffs clinton itself just food for sea creatures. The petroleum being extracted today formed of a millions of years, and tiny creatures just like these. As soon as clinton dies, it sinks to the bottom of the sea, since there was barely any oxygen at gray to depth, the clinton does not decay. Instead, it mixes with different settlements, light clay and found on the sea, but the settlements flowed from rivers into the ocean. Together with you, what kind of clinton they foamed became sludge, the souls for rock petroleum. Over the course of 10000. 00 to several 1000000 years supplementary lay is stuck on top of each other, becoming hundreds of meat as high. This process increases the pressure on the petroleum sole struck, raises the temperature. When the temperature reaches 80 degrees celsius, the petroleum sol stroke begins to transform the loan chain, hydrocarbons that may get up. But he can just show to chains. This process is known as cracking the fine grains digested sludge transforms into viscous crude oil. One of the most complex organic compounds on our planet. Extreme pressure force is the oil out of the rock that migrate spotwood and collect any intangible layers of salt, mostly defined clay, creating an oil deposit. Today, about 15000000 liters of black gold are extracted from deposits every day. New crude oil is still forming all the time. As long as there is clinton, there were the substances needed to form petroleum, but it wouldnt be ready for millions of use. The petroleum has been hiring industry for the past 150 years and driving Climate Change to electricity is one alternative. But electric cars, for example, need rechargeable batteries, and theyre still full of precious raw materials. So scientists are looking into how to recycle them efficiently. The black box engine side chunks of old batteries. They might not look like it, but theyre very valuable. Inside are lots of rare metals, including the much sought after lithium. The company are correct and they failed. Germany has been recycling old batteries from across europe for more than 20 years. Engineer diagnose like a is a Battery Recycling pioneer, p things, Battery Recycling has Untapped Potential and not big deal. The market is huge right now, but relatively few batteries are being returned because many countries still dont have the collection infrastructure or the contents of the awareness of how batteries are collected for recycling is not very pronounced here in germany. Either. This is the best so some other countries have higher collection rates and um, see the different lots of batteries getting mixed in with electronic waste or theyre exported in such a way that were not able to trace their route. So it does so the overall return rates are pretty bad, decent. In fact, less than half of all batteries get recycled, that causes big problems for recyclers. Theres not enough demand to build the recycling machines needed to carry out the process. In this pilot plant depleted lithium batteries are being heated to 550 degree celsius design. That ones i said, we develop this treasure here ourselves. And its a pilot plant, a larger one that will go into operation. In a few weeks. Weve plants like this one dont exist anywhere on earth to get this means the batteries have only been on the market for 5 to 10 years. For the same demand for them went up quickly and now theyre being recycled to the recycling itself is still very young. And thats why pilot plans like this one are enormously important. If you want to recycle on a large scale and it goes from last up to visit to large amounts of lithium ion batteries will be ready for recycling. Of these gold colored crumbs are Clay Minerals used to safely store lithium ion batteries, which are prone to catching on fire. Sorting batteries is still laborious. Manual work, their components are very different, but from the outside, theyre virtually in discernible. There is no description of which chemicals are inside, so each battery is a unique surprise. Right next door recyclers are working on a destroyed car battery. It might still have some residual charging it. Thats why special high voltage electricians are at work here. Engineer i know so like a says its worth the effort due to the value of the coveted contents. Been a lot of this, if we just focus on the metal lithium, its one of the metals thats most available on the planet, but its very finely distributed across the earths crust. Find a tie it in the costa. Here we get the material for free. Inside the lithium batteries, concentration of 234, or 5 percent fide if you would since one test. And so these are of course, and easily accessible source, about whom ill send that to y, instructed very laboriously from nature when i can get it free of charge when recycling fly, it can be fun. Lithium recycling may soon become big business, but at the moment its still in the pioneering phase 2, but the company itself step when use of the batteries have just come out of paralysis. Well, weve removed the plastic, send it to use it was to come the image of im not so yeah, were left with the material mix of metals like steel aluminum, copper, and black mass. Meaning we now have to separate those metals as fonts, muscle to be. Were working closely together with our w t h often nominated as the height. Awesome to them are w t age often is one of the lead eating institutes in germany when it comes to recycling use batteries. Scientists like pose up on i develop recycling concepts for all types of use batteries, including this use, the ion battery. The coveted raw material is in the black dust between the thing copper foils. The 1st step is grinding it all into a fine powder. Thoughts is the black part wouldnt be active mass, also known as black mass contains all the valuable materials that you make up. A battery from lithium to nick, coats and cobalt to gratified be all of which are extremely rare, but critical according to your opinion standard. So thats why its very, very important that we can extract the individual elements out of the black mass. Currently 16 p h d, p, cs are being written the simultaneously on lithium recycling. Lead me on to reach, had specialized in what is known as hydro metallurgy. In this process, the black masses stirred into a water the lithium dissolves into the water, but the other metals do not, which makes them easy to filter out. Liliana rece transforms the black broth into a clear solution. Around 90 percent of the lithium contains in the black mass gets recovered this way its Laboratory Work on the verge of becoming an industrial process. You want me to see, im in the voltage here, its i own and then we can recover it from the pollution using environmentally friendly process is like membrane technology. Your ion exchange is when we do that the, lets see, and we get, looks like this. You see a white powder, which is Lithium Carbonate products that can be sold in this form that can then be used in the production of new batteries. Scientists and industry are predicting that that will be the case in the coming years. Extracting elements like graphite, copper, iron, nickel, and cobalt, some old batteries is way past the laboratory phase. Now the focus is on extracting lithium industrially. The white gold of the green energy transition. Blood is red. Why do you have a science question . Send it to us as a video, text or voice message. If we answer it on the show will send you a little surprises. The thank you to come on just as the pencil for this weeks edition of tomorrow today. Joining us again next week for more science stories until then state curious by the the the we love us. We love to douglas the th. Anything no mountain is too high. The road is too long in such a faith ordinary we all this is specialist of lifestyle. 009. Coming up on d. W. Magical beauty. Dark melancholy. The paintings of caspar davi treated like an artist whose works continued to influence the world even today. But why exactly . Finally, before the 250 at the anniversary of his birth taskbar diabetes explained its sales in suzie minutes on d. W. The west page. I mean, i know people go by, i might just do it and im hosting dw new podcasts. Thanks trace amount, but theres no actually about move. Joining us as we travel around your, facing the history of every day. Ok. And thats something right around the wells. And i need to talk to you about just his subscriber id, listen to podcasts, and well take you along to the right. This, the shadows of these pod costs and videos shed light on the dog is devastating. Colonial har is infected by germany across and he employed the schools, tactic farms and destroy lights. What is the legacy of this wide spread race as depression today . History . We need to talk about here, the stories, shadows of german colonialism. Do you big Ocean View Companies play a role in the destruction of the rain forest . I have categories all over the brazilian. We process the 30000. 00 hides a day and 90 percent of that is one of the forward market. The auto industry, for example, the letter will actually cost awesome comes from initial Capital Funds in the m, as in yet the Automobile Industry doesnt care about the supply chain profit. All that much. Illegal leather stats may said on d w the the this is the news and these are our top stories vigils event taking place around the world to commemorate 6 months sayings, but how much terror attacks on israel thousands gathered in jerusalem to remember the 1200 People Killed in more than 200 kidnapped. They also called on these really government to bring home the hostages still in gaza. Israel says its withdrawn its forces from the southern guys. A city of con eunice lodge bought the city lion ruins after months of as strikes and grown battles with palestinian militants. Israels defense minister youll have gone