# These bacteria eat plastic

- Institution: TED
- Department: TEDxMtHood
- Speaker: Morgan Vague
- Year: 2018
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Subjects: Biology, Earth and environment
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_vague_these_bacteria_eat_plastic)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Humans produce 300 million tons of new plastic each year -- yet, despite our best efforts, less than 10 percent of it ends up being recycled. Is there a better way to deal with all this waste? Morgan Vague describes her research with microbiologist Jay Mellies on bacteria that have evolved the unexpected ability to eat plastic -- and how they could help us solve our growing pollution problem.

## Lectures

1. [These bacteria eat plastic](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/morgan_vague_these_bacteria_eat_plastic/cfcb90b038a0), 9 min (TED's player)