Researchers have been able to produce vanilla aroma from plastic bottles for recycling

According to the authors of a study published in the scientific journal Green Chemistry, the extraction of vanillin from plastics is another step in the fight against pollution of the planet by plastic waste.

“This is an important example of the use of synthetic biology to recycle plastic waste into a valuable industrial substance. It can be crucial in the future,” said Joanna Sadler, who also works on the team of biologists at the University of Edinburgh. Bottles, along with cigarette butts, are one of the most common types of plastic pollution.

At the same time, interest in vanillin is still growing; by 2025 alone, demand is expected to increase by almost six percent. At present, synthetic vanillin is produced from, for example, wood tar or waste from the pulp industry in the paper industry.

In addition to thieves and growing demand, the prices of real vanilla have been significantly affected in the last decade by the heat wave and a series of cyclones that have swept through Madagascar, where up to 80 percent of world production comes from.

The crisis then culminated in 2017 and 2018, when the price per kilo of vanilla she swung over 13 thousand crowns, and spices thus became more valuable than the same amount of silver.

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