Paracetamol from plastic

Paracetamol production could be revolutionised by the discovery that a common bacterium can turn everyday plastic waste into the painkiller, a study reveals.

The new method leaves virtually no carbon emissions and is more sustainable than the current production of the medicine, researchers say.

Paracetamol is traditionally made from dwindling supplies of fossil fuels including crude oil.

Thousands of tons of fossil fuels are used annually to power the factories that produce the painkiller, alongside other medicines and chemicals. This makes a significant contribution to climate change, experts say.

The PET problem

The breakthrough addresses the urgent need to recycle a widely used plastic known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which ultimately ends up in landfill or polluting oceans.

The strong, lightweight plastic is used for water bottles and food packaging, and creates more than 350 million tons of waste annually, causing serious environmental damage worldwide.

PET recycling is possible, but existing processes create products that continue to contribute to plastic pollution worldwide, researchers say.

Converting PET to paracetamol

A team of scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s Wallace Lab used genetically reprogrammed E. coli, a harmless bacterium, to transform a molecule derived from PET known as terephthalic acid into the active ingredient of paracetamol.

Researchers used a fermentation process, similar to the one used in brewing beer, to accelerate the conversion from industrial PET waste into paracetamol in less than 24 hours.