Plastic bottles litter most of the world. There have been ongoing efforts to find methods to biodegrade PET, a very common plastic used for bottled water. British scientists have discovered an efficient way to get bacteria to "eat" PET plastic. Here's how it works.
recycling plastics
Recycling of plastics is not a simple job. They must be sorted, not only by type but also by the flameproofing chemical that may be added. A Danish group has figured out an automated way to sort plastic garbage using a nifty camera and an algorithm. And pretty colors. Clever stuff.