In order to learn more about the impact plastic pollution has on our environment, we saw fit to reach out to local organizations in Texas and talk to professionals. Upon contacting a few of those organizations, the Galveston Bay Foundation and the Texas River Protection Association were more than happy to talk with us about their personal experiences and struggles with plastic pollution.

Galveston Bay Foundation

On June 23, 2022, we interviewed two representatives from the Galveston Bay Foundation: an organization dedicated to the research and preservation of the Texas coastline along the Gulf of Mexico. Our hosts were very open to questions and are great conversationalists, making their work just as interesting for us as it was for them.

One of the many passions of their organization is transforming traditional ocean cleanup. Instead of relying on hired team members and volunteers, they would like to move towards preventive action. Through education with the public, we can stop the litter from reaching the ocean before it even ends up in the bin or dumpster. One piece of advice they recognize for the average person: cut down on single use plastic, invest in tangible and realistic alternatives you can reuse.

Texas River Protection Association

We also spoke with Duane Tegrotenhuis, a hands-on advocate with the Texas River Protection Association (TRPA). Duane informed us of plastics that he found in Texas rivers: plastic bags, wrappers, cartons, and watercraft made from PET are the most prevalent in our local ecosystem. TRPA focuses on hiring people to run cleanups, and it was in his opinion the most effective and efficient form of trash pickup along our rivers.

His viewpoint was largely that people visit our rivers to have fun, and when they aren’t properly educated in simple things such as: how to tie the right knots to keep items from floating away, what happens when we throw our trash into rivers, and how it affects us in the long run, then they permeate the behavior that is self centered and rash.

Overall, Duane was excited to hear about our work, saying this is a problem he has been working on in his career for about 60 years with no viable solutions. It was an absolute pleasure speaking with Duane on behalf of the TRPA.

One of the largest takeaways from our human practice activities was just how widespread the problem of plastic pollution is. PET waste is incredibly common, with our discussions illustrating how many packaging materials and other objects that make their way to waterways. These discussions helped us reinforce our passion for performing work that would have an impact. As such, we decided to continue our project with a focus on PET, both due to the materials prevalence and the amount of work being performed on the PET degrading enzyme PETase. In addition to helping us learn about the prevalence of plastic waste, the interviews also helped us see how most current strategies are heavily reliant on the actions of everyday people. Our team believed that this was overall a negative and that our reliance on the general population could be reduced by creating more incentive for active degrading of waste materials. If these materials could be utilized in a more efficient way, it would be worthwhile to collect them or put more effort into making sure they do not end up in the environment. Therefore, the team’s focus shifted from simply improving PETase and related enzymes toward preparing these enzymes for an industrial role, settling on surface display as a main priority. We believed that the reduction of time constraints and money savings due to eliminating protein purification would be extremely beneficial in making industrial enzymatic plastic degradation a reality. Further, we hope this will incentivize the collection of PET waste, especially that which cannot be traditionally recycled, and take a step toward closing the loop of PET production.