Ludmilla Aristilde

I believe we should come at it at multiple funds.

I think the advantage of microbes is that microbes do not need the waste stream to be pure or to be just one entity.

There are some chemical treatments that we can do.

There are other things that we can do that require that you have the waste stream to be just not as complex.

The microbes and the bacteria that we're using, they are from the environment.

They are used to being exposed to a complex food source.

The other thing I think that is really particular about microbes in general, and I would say specifically the bacteria that we work on, is that we can use the bacteria not just to eat the plastics, but to convert it into a product.

This is what's called biomanufacturing.

And that's very attractive.

Again, it depends on the bacterial species.

We work with bacteria that produce some acids, so very short, not a lot of carbon chain acids that can be used as a precursor to pharmaceuticals, for example.

We have some of the bacteria that we work on that can produce polymers that have structures that are very similar to the polymers that we actually make from petroleum.

That's the part that I'm very excited about.

Is there a world in which we can use microbes to turn plastics into precursors to plastics?

And that is the circular solution that is very attractive that we as scientists who work in this field would like to achieve.

I would, I say at this point, we don't know how much is going to be part of like what fraction is going to represent in the total solution.

That is way beyond my expertise.

But I just wanted, what I could say is that I don't expect this to be the only solution, but also it depends on how much do we invest in this.

Right.

So I like to give the example, for example, that when I was a little girl, like solar panels was not thought to be something that was economically viable.