Over seven million tons of nylons are produced globally each year. Nylon is a useful plastic for the creation of fabrics and fishing nets. Its production creates greenhouse gas and it is difficult to recycle. Currently nylon is not widely recycled which leads to landfill and environmental leakage. The available fiber-to-fiber recycling technologies often lead to nylon that is downcycled to less valuable products: mechanically recycled nylon can have decreased properties and discolouration; chemical recycling requires high temperatures which increases cost and carbon production. 

Through “Bio-recycling of Nylon Waste”, I have been investigating developing enzymes to allow infinite recycling of nylons without any loss of mechanical properties or high temperatures. Enzymes are already mass produced for products such as washing powders. With optimum recycling infrastructure, enzymes are an innovative low carbon and low energy solution to the plastic problem. This project focuses on nylon degrading enzymes and engineering them to improve their efficiency. However, more collaboration is needed in scaling up the process through synergistic technologies that make it easier for end users to buy and recycle blended nylon products. 

Collaboration is also required to create new forms of “designed-to-recycle” nylon and to investigate ways of treating nylon to make it more susceptible to enzymatic degradation. This could involve pretreatment with chemicals or grinding to a fine powder. The impact of this project will be an increase in the value of recycled nylon, incentivizing industrial adoption and reducing environmental pollution.