B. subtilis with polycaprolactone tagged posts

This ‘living plastic’ activates and self-care destructs on command

When built on the living plastic, a prototype wearable electrode readily degrades (bottom row), while one built on a commercially available plastic persists (top row).
Adapted from ACS Applied Polymer Materials 2026, DOI: 10.1021/acsapm.5c04611

Many plastic products are designed to be used only once, yet the material itself lasts for years. But a new strategy is addressing this problem by creating products that self-destruct on command, known as living plastics. These materials incorporate activatable, plastic-degrading microbes alongside the polymers. One team reporting in ACS Applied Polymer Materials used two bacterial strains that worked together and completely broke down the material within just six days, without making microplastics.

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