Difference between revisions of "Team:CPU CHINA/IntegratedHumanPractices"

 
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        <h1 id="title">INTEGRATED HUMAN PRACTICES</h1>
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                <div class="catalogue-title">IHP</div>
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                        <a href="#section1" title="INSPIRATION">INSPIRATION</a>
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                         <a href="#section3" title="MADE OUR VOICE BE HEARD">MADE OUR VOICE BE HEARD</a>
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                <h1 id="title">INTEGRATED HUMAN PRACTICES</h1>
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                        <div class="section" id="section1">
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                                <h2 id='inspiration'><span>INSPIRATION</span></h2>
 +
                                <p><span>During the initial stage after team CPU_CHINA 2021 was established, we’ve
 +
                                                brainstormed for several
 +
                                                times to explore how synthetic biology may change the real world from
 +
                                                every aspect of our society
 +
                                                and lives. </span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/7/7a/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--1.jpeg"
 +
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 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 1 Brainstorming.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>After multiple heated discussions, the current issue of excessive packaging in
 +
                                                express industry
 +
                                                captured our attention. In China, with the rapid development of
 +
                                                e-commerce, express has gradually
 +
                                                become an indispensable part in our daily life. Yet the convenience and
 +
                                                efficiency that express
 +
                                                delivery brought to us was inevitably accompanied by a large number of
 +
                                                waste plastic packaging.
 +
                                                These waste plastic packaging can not be easily recycled and reused like
 +
                                                other packaging materials.
 +
                                                And the white pollution problem they brought has seriously affected the
 +
                                                living environment of human
 +
                                                beings. With the passion for doing something to change the current
 +
                                                situation, CPU_CHINA started from
 +
                                                our surrounding environment and tried to carry out related
 +
                                                investigations.</span></p>
 +
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                                <a href="#section2"><img
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                                <a href="#section3"><img
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                                <a href="#section4"><img
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                        </div>
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                        <div class="section" id="section2">
 +
                                <h2 id='listen-to-the-world'><span>LISTEN TO THE WORLD</span></h2>
 +
                                <p><span>In sum, by conducting on-site investigations to learn about the production,
 +
                                                transportation and
 +
                                                disposal of express packaging waste, we specified our resolve of
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                                                polyethylene degradation, whose
 +
                                                settlement is of key importance for alleviating express waste pollution.
 +
                                                We also received certain
 +
                                                cautions to be paid attention to when designing and evaluating our
 +
                                                project. In addition, through
 +
                                                summarizing current situations of PE recycling industry and talking to
 +
                                                practitioners in the field,
 +
                                                we discovered the potential application of our project as a potent
 +
                                                pollutant cleanser and resource
 +
                                                regenerator.</span></p>
 +
                                <h3 id='chapter-1-express-depositories'><span>CHAPTER 1. EXPRESS DEPOSITORIES </span>
 +
                                </h3>
 +
                                <p><span>In order to explore </span><strong><span>the story behind discarded express
 +
                                                        packaging</span></strong><span>, we focused on their origin by
 +
                                                going to the site for acquiring
 +
                                                first hand information. The first location that came into our mind was
 +
                                                the </span><strong><span>Cai
 +
                                                        Niao Courier Station</span></strong><span> in our campus.
 +
                                        </span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/0/0c/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--2.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--2" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 2 Interviewing the staff of the Cai Niao
 +
                                                        Courier Station.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>We interviewed the staff of the Cai Niao Station in China Pharmaceutical
 +
                                                University. According to
 +
                                                their knowledge, the amount of express delivery and plastic packaging
 +
                                                consumed solely by this very
 +
                                                station in our school was already considerable. Normally, there are
 +
                                                about </span><strong><span>7000
 +
                                                        received packages</span></strong><span> at the station
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>per
 +
                                                        day</span></strong><span>. On average, every student of the
 +
                                                school receives
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>4.5 packages per week,</span></strong><span> and this
 +
                                                number will increase
 +
                                                significantly during sales promotion of many e-commerce platforms. In
 +
                                                addition, logistics companies
 +
                                                and merchants tend to apply </span><strong><span>excessive
 +
                                                        packaging</span></strong><span> in order
 +
                                                to ensure the safety or improve the exquisiteness of the goods before
 +
                                                sending them out. All of these
 +
                                                factors contributed to the accumulation of discarded packaging waste,
 +
                                                which needs to be cleaned up
 +
                                                by the staffs for many times on a daily basis. </span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/f/fd/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--3.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--3" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 3 The person who took the
 +
                                                        packages.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>The data and records provided by the staff during this interview revealed to us
 +
                                                the shocking volume
 +
                                                of express delivery industry, and the accompanying packaging waste,
 +
                                                which strongly proved the
 +
                                                urgency of this issue. This prompted us to conduct a more veritable
 +
                                                research outside the campus to
 +
                                                acquire a more comprehensive and realistic understanding, as well as to
 +
                                                determine the specific but
 +
                                                crucial problem we should tackle. Therefore, the next stop we visited
 +
                                                were several
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>residential areas</span></strong><span> in Nanjing. Similar
 +
                                                to the situation in our
 +
                                                campus, we found that there were </span><strong><span>many discarded
 +
                                                        plastic packaging in the
 +
                                                        express depositories of the community</span></strong><span>.
 +
                                                After randomly interviewing some
 +
                                                residents, we learned the following things:</span></p>
 +
                                <ol start=''>
 +
                                        <li>
 +
                                                <p><span>The development of online shopping in China has led to a boom
 +
                                                                in the express delivery
 +
                                                                industry, which clearly benefits everyone. A community
 +
                                                                resident who was signing for packages
 +
                                                                told us that everything she needed in daily life can be
 +
                                                                mostly bought online, thus saving
 +
                                                                her time of shopping in grocery stores and supermarkets
 +
                                                                for other meaningful purposes. The
 +
                                                                storage racks full of parcels in the express
 +
                                                                depositories also illustrated the importance of
 +
                                                                express delivery in the lives of Chinese people.</span>
 +
                                                </p>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                        <li>
 +
                                                <p><span>Large numbers of packages can bring not only convenience, but
 +
                                                                also waste. The staff at the
 +
                                                                community express depository said that in order to
 +
                                                                ensure the integrity and safety of goods
 +
                                                                during their transportation, </span><strong><span>apart
 +
                                                                        from</span></strong><span> commonly
 +
                                                                applied </span><strong><span>paper
 +
                                                                        boxes</span></strong><span> as a container of
 +
                                                                goods, the
 +
                                                                express companies also have to use
 +
                                                        </span><strong><span>plastic packaging
 +
                                                                        materials</span></strong><span> such as adhesive
 +
                                                                tapes and inflatable damping bags to
 +
                                                                seal the package and protect the goods. By the time
 +
                                                                these packages reached to consumers,
 +
                                                                unlike the recyclable paper boxes, these
 +
                                                        </span><strong><span>plastic packaging materials
 +
                                                                        would be thrown away
 +
                                                                        instantly</span></strong><span> and turned into
 +
                                                                garbage--this was a
 +
                                                                brand new fact that was </span><strong><span>extremely
 +
                                                                        important</span></strong><span>. Some
 +
                                                                other residents who came to pick up the packages also
 +
                                                                informed us about the inconvenience
 +
                                                                caused by overpacked plastics on their parcels.</span>
 +
                                                </p>
 +
                                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/4/4e/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--4.jpeg"
 +
                                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--4" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 4 Talking with residents.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>The situations and findings in the residential areas were similar to what
 +
                                                we&#39;ve discovered in
 +
                                                the campus. </span><strong><span>As a result</span></strong><span>, we
 +
                                                realized that without an
 +
                                                appropriate treatment, these single-used plastic waste are bound to
 +
                                                cause serious consumption of
 +
                                                resources, as well as the environmental pollution.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/5/5d/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--5.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--5" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 5 A lot of plastic waste.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/f/fb/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--6.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--6" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 6 Garbage truck.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Feedback:</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>In light of the acquired findings from the two preliminary visits, we realized
 +
                                                that
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>the accumulation of plastic packaging waste had been a
 +
                                                        problem that requires urgent
 +
                                                        response and attention</span></strong><span>. Therefore, bearing
 +
                                                the values of sustainable
 +
                                                development in mind, members of CPU_CHINA 2021 began to conduct
 +
                                                literature investigation and
 +
                                                discussions, in search of an potential innovative solution towards this
 +
                                                issue, with the hope that we
 +
                                                can solve plastic pollution nowadays. During this process, we got to
 +
                                                know that the main composition
 +
                                                of plastic packaging waste was </span><strong><span>polyethylene
 +
                                                        (PE)</span></strong><span>, a type
 +
                                                of widely used polymer material mainly consisting of carbon and
 +
                                                hydrogen, making it
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>difficult to be degraded</span></strong><span> under
 +
                                                natural conditions. Thus, we
 +
                                                became determined to develop </span><strong><span>a new type of PE
 +
                                                        degradation
 +
                                                        method</span></strong><span> that can effectively accelerate the
 +
                                                break down of PE. </span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/c/cb/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--7.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--7" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 7 Lively discussion among
 +
                                                        members.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/4/4c/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--8.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--8" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 8 Discussing project.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Meanwhile, since we were trying to figure out a new solution on plastic waste
 +
                                                treatment, it is also
 +
                                                of vital importance to </span><strong><span>know about the current
 +
                                                        plastic disposal
 +
                                                        situations</span></strong><span> to help us precisely modify our
 +
                                                project. Therefore, eager to
 +
                                                have a more in-depth understanding of the city&#39;s waste plastic
 +
                                                treatment system, we made a trip
 +
                                                to the garbage disposal transit station in Jiangning High-tech District
 +
                                                for on-site investigation.
 +
                                        </span></p>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <h3 id='chapter-2-garbage-transit-station'><span>CHAPTER 2. GARBAGE TRANSIT
 +
                                                STATION</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><span>This station is the centralized disposal point of household waste produced in
 +
                                                the district. The
 +
                                                station staff told us that household waste from the communities will be
 +
                                                concentrated in the
 +
                                                district-level garbage processing transit station, where the recyclable
 +
                                                materials will be sorted out
 +
                                                for recycling; the kitchen waste will be sent to special processing
 +
                                                device for resource reclamation,
 +
                                                generating organic fertilizer as the final product; and other waste will
 +
                                                be directly loaded to the
 +
                                                garbage transfer trucks for transportation to garbage incineration
 +
                                                plants or landfills.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/4/44/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--9.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--9" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 9 Interviewing the staff of the garbage
 +
                                                        transit station.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/6/62/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--10.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--10" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 10 The staff is disinfecting the garbage
 +
                                                        truck.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>As for our survey object, we learned from this trip that
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>PE belongs to other
 +
                                                        waste</span></strong><span>. Its disposal profile showed that
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>part of it
 +
                                                        will be recycled and reused by professional companies, but the
 +
                                                        other portions that cannot be
 +
                                                        recycled will be uniformly transported to incineration plants or
 +
                                                        landfills in the
 +
                                                        suburbs.</span></strong><span> </span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/7/74/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--11.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--11" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 11 The transportation flow of waste
 +
                                                        plastic.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Therefore, </span><strong><span>to close the loop of the journey of disposed
 +
                                                        plastic
 +
                                                        waste</span></strong><span>, we decided to conduct further
 +
                                                interview to plastic recycling
 +
                                                enterprises, and to make visits to garbage disposal plants.</span></p>
 +
                                <h3 id='chapter-3-the-end-of-discarded-plastics'><span>CHAPTER 3. THE END OF DISCARDED
 +
                                                PLASTICS</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Plastic recycling enterprise</span></strong><span>:</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Co. Ltd</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Company Limited is a large entity enterprise
 +
                                                which specializes in
 +
                                                recycling waste plastic into new materials, such as agricultural
 +
                                                mulching film, for production and
 +
                                                transaction. We contacted the chief manager of this enterprise, Ms.
 +
                                                Sun, through team DUT_China, to
 +
                                                learn about the existing PE products and the recycling status of
 +
                                                PE.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/f/f2/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--12.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--12" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 12 We met Ms. Sun and her student, Mr. Liu of
 +
                                                        Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Co. Ltd
 +
                                                        with team DUT_China.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <ol start=''>
 +
                                        <li>
 +
                                                <p><span>Ms. Sun introduced us to the technological process of plastic
 +
                                                                recycling.</span></p>
 +
                                                <p><span>She told us that China&#39;s plastic recycling market only
 +
                                                                began to develop in recent
 +
                                                                years. The existing technology is not particularly
 +
                                                                mature, thus the requirements on waste
 +
                                                                plastic as raw materials for recycle are relatively
 +
                                                                high. However, the sources of waste
 +
                                                                plastics are complex, and they often mixed with
 +
                                                                impurities such as fabrics, rubber, metals,
 +
                                                                and silts, making them difficult to be processed for
 +
                                                                now. So the fact is, there are
 +
                                                                currently not many types of plastic can be recycled and
 +
                                                                reused. The remaining portion can
 +
                                                                only be landfilled or incinerated. There is no doubt
 +
                                                                that the plastic recycling market has
 +
                                                                huge development potential in the future, but nowadays
 +
                                                                the proportion of plastic that can be
 +
                                                                recycled is still small, which requires the joint
 +
                                                                efforts of academia and industry to
 +
                                                                improve this situation.</span></p>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                        <li>
 +
                                                <p><span>With increasing emphasis on sustainable development by
 +
                                                                government, numerous enterprises
 +
                                                                have begun to develop degradable plastic pipelines.
 +
                                                                However, they encountered many realistic
 +
                                                                factors, such as high cost of material, rigorous
 +
                                                                degradation condition, incomplete
 +
                                                                degradation and so on. There is still a long way to go
 +
                                                                for biodegradable plastics to be used
 +
                                                                on a much wider scale.</span></p>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                        <li>
 +
                                                <p><span>As a result, our aim of trying to tackle the issue of
 +
                                                                unrecyclable PE plastic pollution was
 +
                                                                highly recognized by Ms. Sun. She affirmed the
 +
                                                                practical significance of our project, but
 +
                                                                she also pointed out for us that if we want to evaluate
 +
                                                                the plastic-degrading efficacy of
 +
                                                                our system, we must pay attention to the additives in
 +
                                                                the selected plastic samples for the
 +
                                                                reason that they might affect the experimental outcome.
 +
                                                                Also, she suggested that as we
 +
                                                                carried on designing and modifying our project, there
 +
                                                                are many governmental regulations and
 +
                                                                national standards about plastic degradation evaluation
 +
                                                                that would benefit our design, and
 +
                                                                we should look them up carefully.</span></p>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Feedback</span></strong><span>: </span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>We learned from the interview that due to various realistic factors, both the
 +
                                                plastic recycling
 +
                                                industry and the bio-degradable plastic production industry have their
 +
                                                own advantages to occupy a
 +
                                                portion of market share, and their disadvantages that limit the market
 +
                                                share from expanding. This
 +
                                                phenomenon enlightened us that we should also evaluate the advantages
 +
                                                and disadvantages of our
 +
                                                project that would define our share of market, in order to determine the
 +
                                                implementation of our
 +
                                                product. As a result, we hoped to seek more guidance and comments on our
 +
                                                project from practitioners
 +
                                                in the plastic industry, which prompted us to attend relative industry
 +
                                                exhibition or market
 +
                                                development forum, where we would have the chance to meet more
 +
                                                stakeholders for feedback.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>At the same time, we must </span><strong><span>pay attention to national
 +
                                                        standards</span></strong><span> when verifying the plastic
 +
                                                degradation efficiency of our system.
 +
                                                In response to the advice provided by Ms. Sun, we made adjustments on
 +
                                                our experimental design
 +
                                                regarding the selection of plastic samples and the evaluation of plastic
 +
                                                degradation by
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>adding multiple means of instrumental analysis approach to
 +
                                                        evaluate the degradation
 +
                                                        of PE more comprehensively</span></strong><span>.</span></p>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Plastic disposal plant</span></strong><span>:</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Our last stop is the garbage treatment plant located in Jiaozishan. The
 +
                                                unrecyclable PE, together
 +
                                                with other urban garbage, were collected by the garbage disposal transit
 +
                                                stations in all districts
 +
                                                and counties and were transported to here, waiting for their final
 +
                                                destinies.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>With the increase of the urban population and the improvement of people&#39;s
 +
                                                living standards, the
 +
                                                output of municipal solid waste is also increasing. According to
 +
                                                statistics,
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>two-thirds of China&#39;s 668 cities are surrounded by
 +
                                                        garbage</span></strong><span>. The total land area of garbage
 +
                                                storage in the country has reached
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>500 square kilometers</span></strong><span>, and
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>one-quarter
 +
                                                        of the cities</span></strong><span> have developed to a stage
 +
                                                where no suitable land is
 +
                                                available for storage. China&#39;s municipal waste is growing at an
 +
                                                annual rate of 8% to 10%,
 +
                                                reaching 340 million tons by 2020.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>As mentioned before, the unrecyclable PE waste is transported to the landfill
 +
                                                for sanitary burial.
 +
                                                Such a treatment method makes the degradation of municipal solid waste
 +
                                                very slow, not to mention the
 +
                                                strategy of accelerating their degradation is relatively scarce. Thus,
 +
                                                these accumulated waste will
 +
                                                inevitably lead to a huge impact on the environment for a long
 +
                                                time.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/4/42/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--13.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--13" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 13 Interviewing the staff of the plastic
 +
                                                        disposal plant.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/6/6c/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--14.jpeg"
 +
                                                style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 14 Watching the scale video of the landfill
 +
                                                        site together with the
 +
                                                        staff.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>The technicians managing the landfill told us that the natural degradation
 +
                                                process of municipal
 +
                                                waste is accompanied by occurrence of multiple physical, chemical and
 +
                                                biological reactions in
 +
                                                reality. During this process, </span><strong><span>microorganisms may
 +
                                                        play a leading role in
 +
                                                        biodegradation of the waste</span></strong><span>. Therefore, we
 +
                                                suggest that
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>applying</span></strong><span>
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>biological
 +
                                                        factors</span></strong><span> to accelerate the disappearance of
 +
                                                plastics in landfills should be
 +
                                                an ideal approach to alleviate the serious white pollution.</span></p>
 +
                                <h3 id='summary'><span>SUMMARY</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><span>We shared the collective information with other members of the team. By
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>integrating results of preliminary literature
 +
                                                        investigations and feedback from
 +
                                                        field researches</span></strong><span>, a consensus was
 +
                                                established in the whole team that
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>microbes and their associate enzymes can play an important
 +
                                                        role in promoting
 +
                                                        degradation of many types of pollutants, including plastic
 +
                                                        wastes</span></strong><span>. So our
 +
                                                team further skimmed through a lot of extra literatures and databases
 +
                                                hoping to discover agents that
 +
                                                have the potential to degrade PE. After putting up extensive efforts, we
 +
                                                discovered
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>manganese peroxidase</span></strong><span> (MnP), a lignin
 +
                                                peroxidase derived from
 +
                                                the white-rot fungus </span><em><span>Phanerochaete
 +
                                                        chrysosporium</span></em><span>. It has been
 +
                                                reported in literature that MnP secreted by the fungus still has a
 +
                                                significant degradation
 +
                                                efficiency when applied on the PE film alone. Therefore, we decided to
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>focus on
 +
                                                        this very enzyme and eventually designed a polyethylene
 +
                                                        degradation system based on three
 +
                                                        functional protein and two connect
 +
                                                        systems.</span></strong><span> We named it &quot;Polyethylene
 +
                                                Degradist&quot;, or PEDe. </span></p>
 +
                                <p><em><strong><span>For details, please see <a
 +
                                                                        href="https://2021.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA/Design">Design</a>.
 +
                                                        </span></strong></em></p>
 +
                                <p><span>At the same time, based on the design of our PE-degrading system, we have
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>clarified our brief product
 +
                                                        positioning</span></strong><span>. Our product, the
 +
                                                PEDe., can be used to solve the pollution of the existing enormous
 +
                                                amount
 +
                                                of discarded PE waste
 +
                                                towards the soil and water, as well as to improve the resource
 +
                                                utilization rate so that the existing
 +
                                                landfills can maximize their effectiveness. Therefore, our project can
 +
                                                provide a positive influence
 +
                                                for the environment. CPU_CHINA hopes that our efforts can help the world
 +
                                                to recover from the burden
 +
                                                of white pollutions.</span></p>
 +
                        </div>
 +
                        <div class="section" id="section3">
 +
                                <h2 id='made-our-voice-heard'><span>MADE OUR VOICE HEARD</span></h2>
 +
                                <p><span>As the theme and design of our PE-degrading system were settled, we proceeded
 +
                                                to transform concepts
 +
                                                into entities. During this process, stakeholders, practitioners and
 +
                                                experts were met, consulted or
 +
                                                interviewed in order to receive guidance that helped to determine market
 +
                                                positioning of our product,
 +
                                                raise public awareness of waste sorting, tackle problems of verifying
 +
                                                project feasibility, and most
 +
                                                importantly, answer the question of how would our product be implemented
 +
                                                in the real world.</span>
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <h3 id='experts'><span>EXPERTS</span></h3>
 +
                                <p style="text-align:center;">click number for more details </p>
 +
                                <div id="experts2">
 +
                                        <div id="expertButton">
 +
                                                <img :src="item.url" alt="" v-for="item in buttons"
 +
                                                        @click="change(item)">
 +
                                        </div>
 +
                                        <img :src="describe" alt="">
 +
                                </div>
 +
                                <h3 id='industry-exhibition--market-development-forum'><span>INDUSTRY EXHIBITION &amp;
 +
                                                MARKET DEVELOPMENT
 +
                                                FORUM</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><span>In order to further </span><strong><span>explore the market system and
 +
                                                        determine the business model
 +
                                                        of our product</span></strong><span>, we participated in the
 +
                                        </span><em><span>2021 China
 +
                                                        (Nanjing) Plastics Industry Exhibition &amp; Biodegradable
 +
                                                        Plastics Chemical Technology and
 +
                                                        Market Development Forum</span></em><span> held in Nanjing
 +
                                                International Exhibition Center on
 +
                                                June 17, 2021. On this exhibition, we interviewed stakeholders from
 +
                                                Wujiang Green Forest Resources
 +
                                                Recycling Company Limited and SANER International.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/c/cc/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--15.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--15" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 15 Industry Exhibition &amp; Market
 +
                                                        Development Forum visit card.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Wujiang Green Forest Resources Recycling Company
 +
                                                        Limited</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/c/cc/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--16.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--16" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 16 Taking photo with Ms. Lin.</span></strong>
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <p><span>Interviewee: Ms. Lin, General Manager.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Enterprise attributes: Recycle and utilization of renewable resources</span>
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <p><span>Interview content: </span></p>
 +
                                <ol start=''>
 +
                                        <li><span>A Brief introduction of the main business of the enterprise.</span>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>The enterprise recycles scraps, defective products generated in the factory and
 +
                                                daily necessities
 +
                                                (cosmetics, toiletries). They set up sorting points and deep-processing
 +
                                                plants in China and Japan to
 +
                                                classify and recycle the collected plastic waste. With the help of
 +
                                                physical, chemical and other
 +
                                                kinds of methods, plastic waste is transformed into new plastic
 +
                                                particles.</span></p>
 +
                                <ol start='2'>
 +
                                        <li><span>The source of plastic waste.</span></li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>Most of the recycled plastic waste comes from China. The current recycling
 +
                                                situation is relatively
 +
                                                good. The </span><strong><span>recyclable plastic waste will be
 +
                                                        purchased directly from plastic
 +
                                                        manufactories or companies.</span></strong><span> Compared with
 +
                                                recycling from the garbage
 +
                                                disposal station, it is more efficient and more professional. A part of
 +
                                                the domestic waste collected
 +
                                                by the recycling station can also be used, but specific evaluation and
 +
                                                classification are
 +
                                                required.</span></p>
 +
                                <ol start='3'>
 +
                                        <li><span>The prospects of the plastics market.</span></li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>According to the current orientation of policies in China, and the development
 +
                                                trend of global
 +
                                                environmental protection, the future plastics market will definitely
 +
                                                develop towards the direction
 +
                                                of degradability and recycling. Degradable plastics can solve the
 +
                                                problem of plastic pollution from
 +
                                                the source, while plastic recycling uses different technologies to make
 +
                                                recycled discarded plastics
 +
                                                into plastic particles for reuse, which can create greater economic
 +
                                                value. But there is still a long
 +
                                                way to go for the ideal future.</span></p>
 +
                                <ol start='4'>
 +
                                        <li><strong><span>Advice on our project of plastic degradation.</span></strong>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>Mr. Lin expressed appreciation on our ideas, but he also pointed out that
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>we
 +
                                                        must pay attention to practical issues, such as cost and
 +
                                                        budgets, as well as the project&#39;s
 +
                                                        possibility to be applied to reality, etc.</span></strong><span>
 +
                                                He reminded us that the
 +
                                                transformation of technology into products is a difficult process, thus
 +
                                                we should
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>contact various stakeholders for
 +
                                                        suggestions</span></strong><span>, and
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>analyze the economic effects</span></strong><span> that can
 +
                                                be created by our
 +
                                                products.</span></p>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>SANER International</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/8/84/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--17.jpeg"
 +
                                                style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 17 Taking photo with Manager
 +
                                                        Shen.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Interviewee: Manager Shen</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Enterprise attributes: Recycling and reusing of plastic</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Interview content: </span></p>
 +
                                <ol start=''>
 +
                                        <li><span>Main business of the enterprise.</span></li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>The main business of the company is to recycle waste plastic and use them to
 +
                                                produce new plastic
 +
                                                products through crushing, washing, and pelletizing. But unlike other
 +
                                                companies, the main raw
 +
                                                materials of this company are plastics in household waste.</span></p>
 +
                                <ol start='2'>
 +
                                        <li><span>The main source of raw materials.</span></li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>Most of them come from Europe, America, Japan and other regions. Only a small
 +
                                                amount of them comes
 +
                                                from China. Because the foreign waste classification system is more
 +
                                                mature and the plastic recycling
 +
                                                market is also more developed, the recycling work is easier.
 +
                                        </span><strong><span>China&#39;s
 +
                                                        garbage classification started later and there are still many
 +
                                                        areas that need to be
 +
                                                        improved.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Summary</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <ol start=''>
 +
                                        <li>
 +
                                                <p><span>Through communication with stakeholders, based on their
 +
                                                                feedback, we learned that besides
 +
                                                                technology itself, we also need to
 +
                                                        </span><strong><span>pay attention to the process of
 +
                                                                        transforming technology into
 +
                                                                        products</span></strong><span> and
 +
                                                        </span><strong><span>assess the economic benefits of
 +
                                                                        products</span></strong><span>. Therefore,
 +
                                                                after that, we </span><strong><span>made a business plan
 +
                                                                        for PEDe.</span></strong><span> to
 +
                                                                analyze the market or competition and formulate
 +
                                                                marketing strategies. </span></p>
 +
                                                <p><em><strong><span>For details, please see <a
 +
                                                                                        href="https://2021.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA/Entrepreneurship">Entrepreneurship</a></span></strong></em>.
 +
                                                </p>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                        <li>
 +
                                                <p><span>We were reminded that the domestic waste classification is not
 +
                                                                yet mature enough, as it is
 +
                                                                the reason why the raw materials for plastic recycling
 +
                                                                come from foreign regions. Therefore,
 +
                                                                we decided to </span><strong><span>use the iGEM platform
 +
                                                                        to promote the importance of waste
 +
                                                                        sorting to the masses, hoping to raise public
 +
                                                                        awareness of waste
 +
                                                                        sorting.</span></strong><span> Based on this, we
 +
                                                                have opened a waste sorting publicity
 +
                                                                activity. </span></p>
 +
                                                <p><em><strong><span>For details, please see <a
 +
                                                                                        href="https://2021.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA/Communication">
 +
                                                                                        Education</a></span></strong></em>.
 +
                                                </p>
 +
                                        </li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <h3 id='environmental-protection-online'><span>ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ONLINE</span>
 +
                                </h3>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/e/e0/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--18.jpeg"
 +
                                                alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--18" style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 18 Taking photo with Manager
 +
                                                        Wang.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Interviewee: Manager Wang</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Enterprise attributes: &quot;Internet Plus&quot; service platform for
 +
                                                environmental protection
 +
                                                industry</span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Interview content: </span></p>
 +
                                <ol start=''>
 +
                                        <li><span>Main business of the enterprise.</span></li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>The main purpose of this enterprise is to build an information exchange
 +
                                                platform for green
 +
                                                companies, such as degradable plastic production companies and plastic
 +
                                                recycling companies, to
 +
                                                display their marketing and purchasing information. Also, the platform
 +
                                                promotes environmental
 +
                                                protection technologies, as well as pollution control methods on a daily
 +
                                                basis. There are websites
 +
                                                and apps ready for use.</span></p>
 +
                                <ol start='2'>
 +
                                        <li><span>Advice on our project of plastic degradation.</span></li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>There are many companies in this area that they have cooperated with. From an
 +
                                                academic point of
 +
                                                view, our idea and technology are with high value and significance,
 +
                                                which is awesome and worth of
 +
                                                praise. When these technologies become more mature, Environmental
 +
                                                Protection Online is willing to
 +
                                                cooperate with CPU_CHINA to further promote our products and
 +
                                                concepts.</span></p>
 +
                                <ol start='3'>
 +
                                        <li><span>Suggestions for the promotion of the CPU_CHINA project</span></li>
 +
                                </ol>
 +
                                <p><span>Nowadays, young people are becoming more accustomed to receiving information
 +
                                                from the Internet,
 +
                                                without the rapid development of online social media not could be true.
 +
                                                Therefore, CPU_CHINA can
 +
                                                make use of Weibo, Bilibili, YouTube and other online platforms to
 +
                                                expand influence when promoting
 +
                                                our project. In addition, we can implement some more interesting ways to
 +
                                                attract public
 +
                                                attentions.</span></p>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Summary:</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Members of human practices gained a lot from this conversation. Based on the
 +
                                                inspiration we
 +
                                                acquired, </span><strong><span>CPU_CHINA set up official accounts on
 +
                                                        major social platforms, planned
 +
                                                        an art exhibition named Meddy: Relight My Star and produced
 +
                                                        comic strips.</span></strong><span>
 +
                                                All of these have won the favor of the public and provided great help
 +
                                                for the promotion of our
 +
                                                project.</span></p>
 +
                                <p><em><strong><span>For details, please see <a
 +
                                                                        href="https://2021.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA/Communication">Education</a>
 +
                                                                and <a
 +
                                                                        href="https://2021.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA/MeddyRelightMyStar">
 +
                                                                        Meddy</a>
 +
                                                        </span></strong></em>.
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 +
                                <h3 id='ecology-environment-bureau-of-nanjing'><span>ECOLOGY ENVIRONMENT BUREAU OF
 +
                                                NANJING</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><span>After determining the project positioning and related technologies, we
 +
                                                contacted the staff of
 +
                                                Ecology Environment Bureau of Nanjing by phone and consulted their
 +
                                                opinions on our project. </span>
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <p><span>The Ecology Environment Bureau is a functional organization of the local
 +
                                                government in charge of
 +
                                                environmental protection. </span></p>
 +
                                <p><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2021/7/7a/T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--19.jpg"
 +
                                                style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 +
                                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong><span>Fig. 19 Ecology Environment Bureau of
 +
                                                        Nanjing.</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><u><span>(</span><em><span>The marketization of public services does not mean the
 +
                                                                transfer of government
 +
                                                                &#39;s responsibility. So the Ecology Environment Bureau
 +
                                                                is still responsible for
 +
                                                                supervision and
 +
                                                                management.</span></em><span>)</span></u></p>
 +
                                <p><span>After inquiring relevant laws and regulations, we found that the government has
 +
                                                paid great
 +
                                                attention to the phenomenon of excessive packaging in the express
 +
                                                industry and has issued
 +
                                                regulations to restrict it. The Ecology Environment Bureau of Nanjing
 +
                                                expressed support for our
 +
                                                project and advised us to </span><strong><span>focus on the practical
 +
                                                        meaning of this
 +
                                                        project</span></strong><span>. The staff suggested that we try
 +
                                                to advertise the project for
 +
                                                investment through various ways, and transform the project into products
 +
                                                when the technology is
 +
                                                mature. At the same time, we should determine the product orientation
 +
                                                for subsequent promotion. They
 +
                                                also reminded us to focus on risk assessment and control as the project
 +
                                                proceed.</span></p>
 +
                        </div>
 +
                        <div class="section" id="section4">
 +
                                <h2 id='practise-in-reality'><span>PRACTISE IN REALITY</span></h2>
 +
                                <h3 id='end-user'><span>END USER</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><span>The main end users of our product are garbage disposal plants and government
 +
                                                environmental
 +
                                                protection departments, supplemented by non-profit organizations,
 +
                                                ecological restoration companies,
 +
                                                and biotechnology companies.</span></p>
 +
                                <h3 id='how-to-use'><span>HOW TO USE</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><span>Our entire system can be distributed to users in the form of protein/nucleic
 +
                                                acid freeze-dried
 +
                                                powder. A set of product includes four types of protein freeze-dried
 +
                                                powders and four types of
 +
                                                nucleic acid freeze-dried powders. After receiving the product, the user
 +
                                                only needs to re-dissolve
 +
                                                the powder into designated solutions, and assemble the entire
 +
                                                degradation system in a few simple
 +
                                                steps as instructed. Subsequently, the assembled system can be directly
 +
                                                applied to the surface of
 +
                                                PE. By adding the required substrate solution, the degradation reactions
 +
                                                will be activated.</span>
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <h3 id='how-to-implement'><span>HOW TO IMPLEMENT</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><span>Based on the novelty of our plastic degradation product, PEDe. will start
 +
                                                promoting from a small
 +
                                                scale. Taking the Jiaozishan Landfill, Tianjingwa Landfill, and Shuige
 +
                                                Landfill in Nanjing as
 +
                                                examples, the construction of the three landfills have played a vital
 +
                                                role in solving domestic
 +
                                                garbage outlet and realizing harmless waste treatment for the city. We
 +
                                                planned to set the three
 +
                                                Nanjing municipal landfills as the starting point of our product, to
 +
                                                explore the commercialization
 +
                                                potential of PEDe.. Through seeking cooperation with the government,
 +
                                                biotechnology companies and
 +
                                                non-profit organizations, a transaction can be concluded with the
 +
                                                landfill to degrade the collected
 +
                                                PE plastic waste. And by gradually expanding the product market, we hope
 +
                                                to realize a comprehensive
 +
                                                development in many provinces and cities across the country, and finally
 +
                                                promote out product to the
 +
                                                world.
 +
                                        </span><em><strong><span><a
 +
                                                                        href="https://2021.igem.org/Team:CPU_CHINA/Entrepreneurship">Entrepreneurship</a></span></strong></em>
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <h3 id='future'><span>FUTURE</span></h3>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Comprehensive ecological restoration</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Based on the principle, the final product of this project has the potential of
 +
                                                degrading polycyclic
 +
                                                aromatic hydrocarbons, azo dye and other organic pollutants in addition
 +
                                                to PE, which are also the
 +
                                                causes of water and soil pollution. Therefore, PEDe. can be used to
 +
                                                explore more possibilities in the
 +
                                                field of ecological restoration beyond degrading PE, such as cooperating
 +
                                                with ecological restoration
 +
                                                companies to help them complete the comprehensive management of the
 +
                                                ecological environment.</span>
 +
                                </p>
 +
                                <p style="font-size: 0.8em;"><em><span>&quot;Nowadays, the Chinese government pays more
 +
                                                        attention to the negative
 +
                                                        impact on the
 +
                                                        environment during the process of economic development, and
 +
                                                        continues to increase its efforts in
 +
                                                        environmental governance. The 19th National Congress of the
 +
                                                        Communist Party of China clearly
 +
                                                        stated that efforts should be made to solve environmental
 +
                                                        problems, and the government has
 +
                                                        issued relevant policies to promote water and soil conservation,
 +
                                                        urban ecological restoration,
 +
                                                        land management, river, lake and wetland protection, marine
 +
                                                        ecological protection and other
 +
                                                        fields. With the strong support of national policies and the
 +
                                                        rapid growth of market demand, the
 +
                                                        ecological restoration industry has developed rapidly and the
 +
                                                        market scale has continued to
 +
                                                        expand. From 2015 to 2019, the scale of fixed asset investment
 +
                                                        in China&#39;s ecological
 +
                                                        protection and environmental governance industry has gradually
 +
                                                        increased, with an average annual
 +
                                                        compound growth rate of 21.27%, and the market size is expected
 +
                                                        to reach 956.3 billion yuan in
 +
                                                        2021. At the same time, traditional landscaping companies have
 +
                                                        been seeking business
 +
                                                        breakthroughs and transformations. Their business structure has
 +
                                                        clearly shifted to the field of
 +
                                                        ecological protection and restoration; enterprises in the
 +
                                                        industry are gradually developing
 +
                                                        towards comprehensive ecological restoration. The future of the
 +
                                                        ecological restoration industry
 +
                                                        has unlimited potential!&quot;</span></em></p>
 +
                                <p><strong><span>Advantages of the connect system</span></strong></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Although the function of the final product of this project focuses on using the
 +
                                                synergy of
 +
                                                functional proteins to accelerate the green degradation of PE plastic,
 +
                                                the CRISPR/dCas9 anchoring
 +
                                                system used to connect functional proteins has quite flexible modularity
 +
                                                and programmability. That
 +
                                                is, through the special sequence design of the double-stranded DNA, the
 +
                                                spacing, number and
 +
                                                arrangement of the binding sites of the dCas9: sgRNA complex on the
 +
                                                chain can be customized.
 +
                                                Combining with the SpyCatcher/SpyTag connection system, the anchor of an
 +
                                                ordered assay of functional
 +
                                                proteins can be achieved. </span></p>
 +
                                <p><span>Studies have shown that using this system to connect enzymes on specific
 +
                                                metabolic pathways in
 +
                                                series can effectively accelerate the rate of conversion of the original
 +
                                                substrate into the target
 +
                                                product, and greatly increase the yield of the target product. That is
 +
                                                to say, the design of the
 +
                                                double connection system, combined with diversified functional proteins
 +
                                                or enzymes, complexes with
 +
                                                distinct function can be generated, enabling them to play a role in many
 +
                                                known or potential fields,
 +
                                                such as industrial production, basic scientific research, analysis and
 +
                                                testing!</span></p>
 +
                        </div>
 +
                </div>
 
         </div>
 
         </div>
        <div id="detail" class="clearfix">
 
            <div class="section" id="section1">
 
                <h2 id='inspiration'><span>INSPIRATION</span></h2>
 
                <p><span>During the initial stage after team CPU_CHINA 2021 was established, we’ve brainstormed for
 
                        several
 
                        times to explore how synthetic biology may change the real world from every aspect of our
 
                        society
 
                        and lives. </span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--1.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--1" style="zoom: 25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 1: Brainstorming</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>After multiple heated discussions, the current issue of excessive packaging in express industry
 
                        captured our attention. In China, with the rapid development of e-commerce, express has
 
                        gradually
 
                        become an indispensable part in our daily life. Yet the convenience and efficiency that express
 
                        delivery brought to us was inevitably accompanied by a large number of waste plastic packaging.
 
                        These waste plastic packaging can not be easily recycled and reused like other packaging
 
                        materials.
 
                        And the white pollution problem they brought has seriously affected the living environment of
 
                        human
 
                        beings. With the passion for doing something to change the current situation, CPU_CHINA started
 
                        from
 
                        our surrounding environment and tried to carry out related investigations.</span></p>
 
            </div>
 
            <div class="section" id="section2">
 
                <h2 id='listen-to-the-world'><span>LISTEN TO THE WORLD</span></h2>
 
                <p><span>In order to explore </span><strong><span>the story behind discarded express packaging and how
 
                            it
 
                            became discarded plastic</span></strong><span>, we focused on their origin by going to the
 
                        site
 
                        for acquiring first hand information.</span></p>
 
                <h3 id='chapter-1-express-depositories'><span>CHAPTER 1. EXPRESS DEPOSITORIES </span></h3>
 
                <p><span>The first location that came into our mind was the </span><strong><span>Cai Niao Courier
 
                            Station</span></strong><span> </span><strong><span>in our campus</span></strong><span>. It
 
                        is a
 
                        logistics service platform, which provides package collection services for online purchasers in
 
                        communities and campuses. More than </span><strong><span>40,000</span></strong><span> Cai Niao
 
                        courier stations constitute the widely scattered terminal express networks in cities around
 
                        China.</span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--2.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--2" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 2 : Interviewing the staff of the Cai Niao Courier Station</strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--3.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--3" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 3: The person who took the packages</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>We interviewed the staff of the Cai Niao Station in China Pharmaceutical University. According
 
                        to
 
                        their knowledge, the amount of express delivery and plastic packaging consumed solely by this
 
                        very
 
                        station in our school was already considerable. Normally, there are about
 
                    </span><strong><span>7000
 
                            received packages</span></strong><span> at the station </span><strong><span>per
 
                            day</span></strong><span>. On average, every student of the school receives
 
                    </span><strong><span>4.5 packages per week,</span></strong><span> and this number will increase
 
                        significantly during sales promotion of many e-commerce platforms. In addition, logistics
 
                        companies
 
                        and merchants tend to apply </span><strong><span>excessive packaging</span></strong><span> in
 
                        order
 
                        to ensure the safety or improve the exquisiteness of the goods before sending them out. All of
 
                        these
 
                        factors contributed to the accumulation of discarded plastic packaging, which needs to be
 
                        cleaned up
 
                        by the staffs for many times on a daily basis. </span></p>
 
                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                <p><span>The data and records collected during this interview revealed to us the shocking volume of
 
                        express
 
                        delivery industry, and the accompanying plastic packaging waste, which prompted us to conduct a
 
                        more
 
                        veritable research outside the campus to acquire a more comprehensive and general understanding
 
                        on
 
                        the issue. Therefore, the next stop we visited were several </span><strong><span>residential
 
                            areas</span></strong><span> in Nanjing. Shortly after our arrival, we found that there were
 
                    </span><strong><span>many discarded plastic packaging in the express depositories of the
 
                            community</span></strong><span>, just like what we had seen back in our school. After
 
                        randomly
 
                        interviewing some residents, we learned the following things:</span></p>
 
                <ol start=''>
 
                    <li><span>The development of online shopping in China has led to a boom in the express delivery
 
                            industry, which clearly benefits everyone. A community resident who was signing for packages
 
                            told us that everything she needed in daily life can be mostly bought online, thus saving
 
                            her
 
                            time of shopping in grocery stores and supermarkets for other meaningful purposes. The
 
                            storage
 
                            racks full of parcels in the express depositories also illustrated the importance of express
 
                            delivery in the lives of Chinese people.</span></li>
 
                    <li><span>Large numbers of packages can bring not only convenience, but also trouble. The staff at
 
                            the
 
                            express depository said that in order to ensure the integrity and safety of goods during
 
                            their
 
                            transportation, the express companies have to put necessary but often excessive packaging on
 
                            the
 
                            goods. But by the time these packages reached to consumers, the packaging materials would
 
                            instantly turn into garbage, which was in line with our previous observations. Some
 
                            residents
 
                            who came to pick up the couriers also complained about the inconvenience caused by
 
                            overpacked
 
                            plastics on their parcels.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>The situations and findings in the residential areas were similar to what we&#39;ve discovered
 
                        in
 
                        the campus. As a result, we realized that without an appropriate treatment, these single-used
 
                        plastic waste are bound to cause serious consumption of resources, as well as the environmental
 
                        pollution.</span></p>
 
                <p><span>When we asked about the disposal methods of these discarded plastic packaging, one of the
 
                        resident
 
                        suggested that we should look for the garbage transfer trucks and follow them to explore the
 
                        next
 
                        stop for garbage disposal.</span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--4.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--4" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 4: A lot of plastic waste</strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--5.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--5" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 5: Talking with residents</strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--6.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--6" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 6: Garbage truck</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>In light of the acquired findings from the two preliminary visits, we realized that
 
                    </span><strong><span>the accumulation of plastic packaging waste had been a problem that requires
 
                            urgent
 
                            response and attention</span></strong><span>. Therefore, bearing the values of sustainable
 
                        development in mind, members of CPU_CHINA 2021 began to conduct literature investigation and
 
                        discussions, in search for an potential innovative solution towards this issue, with the hope
 
                        that
 
                        we can resolve plastic pollution nowadays. During this process, we got to know that the main
 
                        composition of plastic packaging waste was </span><strong><span>polyethylene
 
                            (PE)</span></strong><span>, a type of widely used polymer material mainly consisting of
 
                        carbon
 
                        and hydrogen, making it </span><strong><span>difficult to be degraded</span></strong><span>
 
                        under
 
                        natural conditions. Thus, we became determined to develop </span><strong><span>a new type of PE
 
                            degradation method</span></strong><span> that can effectively accelerate the break down of
 
                        PE.
 
                    </span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--7.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--7" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 7: Lively discussion among members</strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--8.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--8" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 8: Discussing project</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>Meanwhile, since we were trying to figure out a new solution on plastic waste treatment, it is
 
                        also
 
                        of vital importance to know about the current plastic disposal situations to help us precisely
 
                        modify our project. Therefore, eager to have a more in-depth understanding of the city&#39;s
 
                        waste
 
                        plastic treatment system, we made a trip to the garbage disposal transit station in Jiangning
 
                        High-tech District for on-site investigation. </span></p>
 
                <h3 id='chapter-2-garbage-transit-station'><span>CHAPTER 2. GARBAGE TRANSIT STATION</span></h3>
 
                <p><span>This station is the centralized disposal point of household garbage produced in the district.
 
                        The
 
                        station staff told us that household waste from the communities will be concentrated in the
 
                        district-level garbage processing transit station, where the recyclable materials will be sorted
 
                        out
 
                        for recycling; the kitchen waste will be sent to special processing device for resource
 
                        reclamation,
 
                        generating organic fertilizer as the final product; and other waste will be directly loaded to
 
                        the
 
                        garbage transfer trucks for transportation to garbage incineration plants or landfills.</span>
 
                </p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--9.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--9" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 9: Interviewing the staff of the garbage transit station</strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--10.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--10" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 10: The staff is disinfecting the garbage truck</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>As for our survey object, we learned from this trip that </span><strong><span>PE belongs to
 
                            other
 
                            waste</span></strong><span>. Its disposal profile showed that part of
 
                    </span><strong><span>it
 
                            will be recycled and reused by professional companies, but the other portions that cannot be
 
                            recycled will be uniformly transported to incineration plants or landfills in the
 
                            suburbs.</span></strong><span> </span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--11.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--11" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 11: The flow of waste plastic</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>Therefore, to close the loop of the journey of disposed plastic waste, we decided to conduct
 
                        further interview to plastic recycling enterprises, and to make visits to garbage disposal
 
                        plants.</span></p>
 
                <h3 id='chapter-3-the-end-of-discarded-plastics'><span>CHAPTER 3. THE END OF DISCARDED PLASTICS</span>
 
                </h3>
 
                <p><strong><span>Plastic recycling enterprise</span></strong><span>:</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Co. Ltd</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Company Limited is a large entity enterprise which specializes
 
                        in
 
                        recycling waste plastic into new materials, such as agricultural mulching film, for production
 
                        and
 
                        transaction. We contacted the chief manager of this enterprise, Mrs. Sun, as well as her
 
                        student,
 
                        Mr. Liu, through team DUT_China, to learn about the existing PE products and the recycling
 
                        status of
 
                        PE.</span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--12.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--12" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 12: Contacting Mrs. Sun and Mr. Liu of Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Co. Ltd with team
 
                        DUT_China</strong></p>
 
                <ol start=''>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>Mrs. Sun introduced us to the technological process of plastic recycling.</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>She told us that China&#39;s plastic recycling market only began to develop in recent
 
                                years. The existing technology is not particularly mature, thus the requirements on
 
                                waste
 
                                plastic as raw materials for recycle are relatively high. However, the sources of waste
 
                                plastics are complex, and they often mixed with impurities such as fabrics, rubber,
 
                                metals,
 
                                and silts, making them difficult to be processed for now. So the fact is, there are
 
                                currently not many types of plastic can be recycled and reused. The remaining portion
 
                                can
 
                                only be landfilled or incinerated. There is no doubt that the plastic recycling market
 
                                has
 
                                huge development potential in the future, but nowadays the proportion of plastic that
 
                                can be
 
                                recycled is still small, which requires the joint efforts of academia and
 
                                industry.</span>
 
                        </p>
 
                    </li>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>With increasing emphasis on sustainable development by government, numerous enterprises
 
                                have begun to develop degradable plastics. However, they encountered many difficulties,
 
                                such
 
                                as high cost, long degradation time, incomplete degradation and so on. There is still a
 
                                long
 
                                way to go for biodegradable plastics to be used on a real scale.</span></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>During the communication, we learnt that there were strict regulations on the
 
                                degradation
 
                                assessment of plastics. Mrs. Sun reminded us that we must pay attention to national
 
                                standards when verifying the plastic degradation efficiency of our system.</span></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>Mrs. Sun highly recognized the practical significance of our project. She also
 
                                generously
 
                                offered to provide relevant technical support for our subsequent research.</span></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>We learned from the interview that plastic recycling market only began to develop in recent
 
                        years,
 
                        and the relevant technologies of recycling cannot be applied well due to many practical
 
                        problems. In
 
                        addition, there is still way to go for biodegradable plastics to be used on a much larger scale
 
                        for
 
                        replacing traditional plastic products. The status of two fields in plastic industry both have
 
                        their
 
                        own advantages and disadvantages, which gives us some thoughts that we should use a dialectical
 
                        thinking to evaluate our project in order to improve it. </span></p>
 
                <p><span>At the same time, we must </span><strong><span>pay attention to national
 
                            standards</span></strong><span> when verifying the plastic degradation efficiency of our
 
                        system.
 
                        In response to the advice provided by Mrs. Sun, we made adjustments on our experimental design
 
                        regarding the evaluation of plastic degradation by </span><strong><span>adding multiple means of
 
                            instrumental analysis approach to evaluate the degradation of PE more
 
                            comprehensively</span></strong><span>.</span></p>
 
                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                <p><strong><span>Plastic disposal plant</span></strong><span>:</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Our last stop is the garbage treatment plant located in Jiaozishan. The unrecyclable PE,
 
                        together
 
                        with other urban garbage, were collected by the garbage disposal transit stations in all
 
                        districts
 
                        and counties and were transported to here, waiting for their final destinies.</span></p>
 
                <p><span>With the increase of the urban population and the improvement of people&#39;s living standards,
 
                        the
 
                        output of municipal solid waste is also increasing. According to statistics,
 
                    </span><strong><span>two-thirds of China&#39;s 668 cities are surrounded by
 
                            garbage</span></strong><span>. The total land area of garbage storage in the country has
 
                        reached
 
                    </span><strong><span>500 square kilometers</span></strong><span>, and
 
                    </span><strong><span>one-quarter
 
                            of the cities</span></strong><span> have developed to a stage where no suitable land is
 
                        available for storage. China&#39;s municipal waste is growing at an annual rate of 8% to 10%,
 
                        reaching 340 million tons by 2020.</span></p>
 
                <p><span>In the aerial photos on the Internet, the three urban garbage mountains just like three scars
 
                        of
 
                        Nanjing. Their impact on the natural environment may take hundreds of years to resolve.</span>
 
                </p>
 
                <p><span>Video 1: Three urban garbage mountains</span></p>
 
                <p><span>The unrecyclable PE waste is transported to the landfill for sanitary burial. Such a treatment
 
                        method makes the degradation of municipal solid waste very slow, not to mention the strategy of
 
                        accelerating their degradation is relatively scarce. Thus, these accumulated waste will
 
                        inevitably
 
                        lead to a huge impact on the environment for a long time.</span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--13.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--13" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 13: Interviewing the staff of the plastic disposal plant</strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--14.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--14" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 14: Watching the scale video of the landfill site together with the staff</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>The technicians managing the landfill told us that the natural degradation process of municipal
 
                        waste may be accompanied by occurrence of multiple physical, chemical and biological reactions
 
                        in
 
                        reality. During this process, </span><strong><span>microorganisms may play a leading role in
 
                            biodegradation of the waste</span></strong><span>. Therefore, we suggest that
 
                    </span><strong><span>applying</span></strong><span> </span><strong><span>biological
 
                            factors</span></strong><span> to accelerate the disappearance of plastics in landfills
 
                        should
 
                        alleviate the serious white pollution.</span></p>
 
                <h3 id='summary'><span>SUMMARY</span></h3>
 
                <p><span>We shared the collected information with other members of the team. By integrating results of
 
                        preliminary literature investigations and field researches feedback, a consensus was established
 
                        in
 
                        the whole team that </span><strong><span>microbes and their associate enzymes can play an
 
                            important
 
                            role in promoting degradation of many types of pollutants, including plastic
 
                            wastes</span></strong><span>. So our team further skimmed through a lot of extra literatures
 
                        and
 
                        databases hoping to discover agents that have the potential to degrade PE. After putting up
 
                        extensive efforts, we discovered </span><strong><span>manganese peroxidase</span></strong><span>
 
                        (MnP), a lignin peroxidase derived from the white-rot fungus </span><em><span>Phanerochaete
 
                            chrysosporium</span></em><span>. It has been reported in literature that MnP secreted by the
 
                        fungus still has a significant degradation efficiency when applied on the PE film alone.
 
                        Therefore,
 
                        we decided to </span><strong><span>focus on this very enzyme and eventually designed a
 
                            polyethylene
 
                            degradation system based on three functional proteins, including MnP, and two connect
 
                            systems.</span></strong><span> </span></p>
 
                <p><span>(To learn more about our project design, see
 
                    </span><em><strong><span>Design</span></strong></em><span> page).</span></p>
 
                <p><span>At the same time, we have </span><strong><span>clarified our product
 
                            positioning</span></strong><span>. Our product, the polyethylene degradist (PEDe), can not
 
                        only
 
                        solve the pollution of the existing enormous amount of discarded PE waste towards the soil and
 
                        water, but also improve the resource utilization rate so that the existing landfills can
 
                        maximize
 
                        their effectiveness. Therefore, our project can provide a positive influence for the
 
                        environment.
 
                        CPU_CHINA hopes that our efforts can help the world to recover from the burden of white
 
                        pollutions.</span></p>
 
            </div>
 
            <div class="section" id="section3">
 
                <h2 id='made-our-voice-be-heard'><span>MADE OUR VOICE BE HEARD</span></h2>
 
                <p><span>Listening to the world allows us to establish the themes, design and application ideas of our
 
                        project. Afterwards, we continued to send out evaluation invitations to stakeholders, government
 
                        agencies, etc., trying to get meaningful feedback from them to benefit the entire project and
 
                        make
 
                        our voice be heard by the world.</span></p>
 
                <h3 id='industry-exhibition--market-development-forum'><span>INDUSTRY EXHIBITION &amp; MARKET
 
                        DEVELOPMENT
 
                        FORUM</span></h3>
 
                <p><span>In order to further </span><strong><span>explore the market system and determine the business
 
                            model
 
                            of our product</span></strong><span>, CPU_CHINA participated in the </span><em><span>2021
 
                            China
 
                            (Nanjing) Plastics Industry Exhibition &amp; Biodegradable Plastics Chemical Technology and
 
                            Market Development Forum</span></em><span> held in Nanjing International Exhibition Center
 
                        on
 
                        June 17, 2021. On this exhibition, we interviewed stakeholders from Wujiang Green Forest
 
                        Resources
 
                        Recycling Company Limited and SANER International.</span></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--15.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--15" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 15: Industry Exhibition &amp; Market Development Forum visit card</strong></p>
 
                <p><strong><span>Wujiang Green Forest Resources Recycling Company Limited</span></strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--16.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--16" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 16: Taking photo with Mrs. Lin</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>Interviewee: Mrs. Lin, General Manager.</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Enterprise attributes: Recycle and utilization of renewable resources</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Interview content: </span></p>
 
                <ol start=''>
 
                    <li><span>A Brief introduction of the main business of the enterprise.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>The enterprise recycles scraps, defective products generated in the factory and daily
 
                        necessities
 
                        (cosmetics, toiletries). They set up sorting points and deep-processing plants in China and
 
                        Japan to
 
                        classify and recycle the collected plastic waste. With the help of physical, chemical and other
 
                        kinds of methods, plastic waste is transformed into new plastic particles.</span></p>
 
                <ol start='2'>
 
                    <li><span>The source of plastic waste.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>Most of the recycled plastic waste comes from China. The current recycling situation is
 
                        relatively
 
                        good. The recyclable plastic waste will be purchased directly from plastic manufactories or
 
                        companies. Compared with recycling from the garbage disposal station, it is more efficient and
 
                        more
 
                        professional. A part of the domestic waste collected by the recycling station can also be used,
 
                        but
 
                        specific evaluation and classification are required.</span></p>
 
                <ol start='3'>
 
                    <li><span>The prospects of the plastics market.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>According to the current orientation of policies in China, and the development trend of global
 
                        environmental protection, the future plastics market will definitely develop towards the
 
                        direction
 
                        of degradability and recycling. Degradable plastics can solve the problem of plastic pollution
 
                        from
 
                        the source, while plastic recycling uses different technologies to make recycled discarded
 
                        plastics
 
                        into plastic particles for reuse, which can create greater economic value. But there is still a
 
                        long
 
                        way to go for the ideal future.</span></p>
 
                <ol start='4'>
 
                    <li><span>Advice on our project of plastic degradation.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>Mr. Lin expressed appreciation on our ideas, but he also pointed out that we must pay attention
 
                        to
 
                        practical issues, such as cost and budgets, as well as the project&#39;s possibility to be
 
                        applied
 
                        to reality, etc. He reminded us that the transformation of technology into products is a
 
                        difficult
 
                        process, thus we should contact various stakeholders for suggestions, and analyze the economic
 
                        effects that can be created by our products.</span></p>
 
                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                <p><strong><span>SANER International</span></strong></p>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--17.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--17" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 17: Taking photo with manager Shen</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>Interviewee: Manager Shen</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Enterprise attributes: Recycling and reusing of plastic</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Interview content: </span></p>
 
                <ol start=''>
 
                    <li><span>Main business of the enterprise.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>The main business of the company is to recycle waste plastic and use them to produce new
 
                        plastic
 
                        products through crushing, washing, and pelletizing. But unlike other companies, the main raw
 
                        materials of this company are plastics in household waste.</span></p>
 
                <ol start='2'>
 
                    <li><span>The main source of raw materials.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>Most of them come from Europe, America, Japan and other regions. Only a small amount of them
 
                        comes
 
                        from China. Because the foreign waste classification system is more mature and the plastic
 
                        recycling
 
                        market is also more developed, the recycling work is easier. China&#39;s garbage classification
 
                        started later and there are still many areas that need to be improved.</span></p>
 
                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                <p><strong><span>Summary</span></strong></p>
 
                <ol start=''>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>Through communication with stakeholders, based on their feedback, we learned that
 
                                besides
 
                                technology itself, we also need to pay attention to the process of transforming
 
                                technology
 
                                into products and assess the economic benefits of products. Therefore, after that, we
 
                            </span><strong><span>made a business plan for PEDe</span></strong><span> to analyze the
 
                                market
 
                                or competition and formulate marketing strategies. </span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>For details, please see(“ENTREPRENEURSHIP” link)</span></strong></em></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>We were reminded that the domestic waste classification is not yet mature enough, as it
 
                                is
 
                                the reason why the raw materials for plastic recycling come from foreign regions.
 
                                Therefore,
 
                                we decided to </span><strong><span>use the iGEM platform to promote the importance of
 
                                    waste
 
                                    sorting to the masses, hoping to raise public awareness of waste
 
                                    sorting.</span></strong><span> Based on this, we have opened a waste sorting
 
                                publicity
 
                                activity. </span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>For details, please see (“EDUCATION” link)</span></strong></em></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                <h3 id='environmental-protection-online'><span>ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ONLINE</span></h3>
 
                <p><img src="D:\Desktop\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--18.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--18" style="zoom:25%;" />
 
                </p>
 
                <p class="imgdescribe"><strong>Fig. 18: Taking photo with manager Wang</strong></p>
 
                <p><span>Interviewee: Manager Wang</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Enterprise attributes: &quot;Internet Plus&quot; service platform for environmental protection
 
                        industry</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Interview content: </span></p>
 
                <ol start=''>
 
                    <li><span>Main business of the enterprise.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>The main purpose of this enterprise is to build an information exchange platform for green
 
                        companies, such as degradable plastic production companies and plastic recycling companies, to
 
                        display their marketing and purchasing information. Also, the platform promotes environmental
 
                        protection technologies, as well as pollution control methods on a daily basis. There are
 
                        websites
 
                        and apps ready for use.</span></p>
 
                <ol start='2'>
 
                    <li><span>Advice on our project of plastic degradation.</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>There are many companies in this area that they have cooperated with. From an academic point of
 
                        view, our idea and technology are with high value and significance, which is awesome and worth
 
                        of
 
                        praise. When these technologies become more mature, Environmental Protection Online is willing
 
                        to
 
                        cooperate with CPU_CHINA to further promote our products and concepts.</span></p>
 
                <ol start='3'>
 
                    <li><span>Suggestions for the promotion of the CPU_CHINA project</span></li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span>Nowadays, young people are becoming more accustomed to receiving information from the Internet,
 
                        without the rapid development of online social media not could be true. Therefore, CPU_CHINA can
 
                        make use of Weibo, Bilibili, YouTube and other online platforms to expand influence when
 
                        promoting
 
                        our project. In addition, we can implement some more interesting ways to attract public
 
                        attentions.</span></p>
 
                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                <p><span>Conclusion:</span></p>
 
                <p><span>Members of human practices gained a lot from this conversation. Based on the inspiration we
 
                        acquired, </span><strong><span>CPU_CHINA set up official accounts on major social platforms,
 
                            planned
 
                            an art exhibition named Meddy: Relight My Star and produced comic
 
                            strips.</span></strong><span>
 
                        All of these have won the favor of the public and provided great help for the promotion of our
 
                        project.</span></p>
 
                <p><em><strong><span>For details, please see (“EDUCATION” and &quot;MEDDY&quot;
 
                                link)</span></strong></em>
 
                </p>
 
                <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                <h3 id='ecology-environment-bureau-of-nanjing'><span>ECOLOGY ENVIRONMENT BUREAU OF NANJING</span></h3>
 
                <p><span>After determining the project positioning and related technologies, we contacted the staff of
 
                        Ecology Environment Bureau of Nanjing by phone and consulted their opinions on our project.
 
                    </span>
 
                </p>
 
                <p><span>The Ecology Environment Bureau is a functional organization of the local government in charge
 
                        of
 
                        environmental protection. </span></p>
 
                <p><span>(Pic 19)</span></p>
 
                <p><u><span>(</span><em><span>The marketization of public services does not mean the transfer of
 
                                government
 
                                &#39;s responsibility. So the Ecology Environment Bureau is still responsible for
 
                                supervision and management.</span></em><span>)</span></u></p>
 
                <p><span>After inquiring relevant laws and regulations, we found that the government has paid great
 
                        attention to the phenomenon of excessive packaging in the express industry and has issued
 
                        regulations to restrict it. The Ecology Environment Bureau of Nanjing expressed support for our
 
                        project and advised us to </span><strong><span>focus on the practical meaning of this
 
                            project</span></strong><span>. The staff suggested that we try to advertise the project for
 
                        investment through various ways, and transform the project into products when the technology is
 
                        mature. At the same time, we should determine the product orientation for subsequent promotion.
 
                        They
 
                        also reminded us to focus on risk assessment and control as the project proceed.</span></p>
 
            </div>
 
            <div class="section" id="section4">
 
                <h2 id='practise-in-reality'><span>PRACTISE IN REALITY</span></h2>
 
                <h3 id='end-user'><span>END USER</span></h3>
 
                <p><span>The main end users of our product are garbage disposal plants and government environmental
 
                        protection departments, supplemented by non-profit organizations, ecological restoration
 
                        companies,
 
                        and biotechnology companies.</span></p>
 
                <h3 id='how-to-use'><span>HOW TO USE</span></h3>
 
                <p><span>Our entire system can be distributed to users in the form of protein/nucleic acid freeze-dried
 
                        powder. A set of product includes four types of protein freeze-dried powders and four types of
 
                        nucleic acid freeze-dried powders. After receiving the product, the user only needs to
 
                        re-dissolve
 
                        the powder into designated solutions, and assemble the entire degradation system in a few simple
 
                        steps as instructed. Subsequently, the assembled system can be directly applied to the surface
 
                        of
 
                        PE. By adding the required substrate solution, the degradation reactions will be
 
                        activated.</span>
 
                </p>
 
                <h3 id='how-to-implement'><span>HOW TO IMPLEMENT</span></h3>
 
                <p><span>Based on the novelty of our plastic degradation product, PEDe will start promoting from a small
 
                        scale. Taking the Jiaozishan Landfill, Tianjingwa Landfill, and Shuige Landfill in Nanjing as
 
                        examples, the construction of the three landfills have played a vital role in solving domestic
 
                        garbage outlet and realizing harmless waste treatment for the city. We planned to set the three
 
                        Nanjing municipal landfills as the starting point of our product, to explore the
 
                        commercialization
 
                        potential of PEDe. Through seeking cooperation with the government, biotechnology companies and
 
                        non-profit organizations, a transaction can be concluded with the landfill to degrade the
 
                        collected
 
                        PE plastic waste. And by gradually expanding the product market, we hope to realize a
 
                        comprehensive
 
                        development in many provinces and cities across the country, and finally promote out product to
 
                        the
 
                        world. </span><em><strong><span>(“Entrepreneurship”link)</span></strong></em></p>
 
                <h3 id='future'><span>FUTURE</span></h3>
 
                <p><strong><span>Comprehensive ecological restoration</span></strong></p>
 
                <p><span>Based on the principle, the final product of this project has the potential of degrading
 
                        polycyclic
 
                        aromatic hydrocarbons, azo dye and other organic pollutants in addition to PE, which are also
 
                        the
 
                        causes of water and soil pollution. Therefore, PEDe can be used to explore more possibilities in
 
                        the
 
                        field of ecological restoration beyond degrading PE, such as cooperating with ecological
 
                        restoration
 
                        companies to help them complete the comprehensive management of the ecological
 
                        environment.</span>
 
                </p>
 
                <p><em><span>&quot;Nowadays, the Chinese government pays more attention to the negative impact on the
 
                            environment during the process of economic development, and continues to increase its
 
                            efforts in
 
                            environmental governance. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly
 
                            stated that efforts should be made to solve environmental problems, and the government has
 
                            issued relevant policies to promote water and soil conservation, urban ecological
 
                            restoration,
 
                            land management, river, lake and wetland protection, marine ecological protection and other
 
                            fields. With the strong support of national policies and the rapid growth of market demand,
 
                            the
 
                            ecological restoration industry has developed rapidly and the market scale has continued to
 
                            expand. From 2015 to 2019, the scale of fixed asset investment in China&#39;s ecological
 
                            protection and environmental governance industry has gradually increased, with an average
 
                            annual
 
                            compound growth rate of 21.27%, and the market size is expected to reach 956.3 billion yuan
 
                            in
 
                            2021. At the same time, traditional landscaping companies have been seeking business
 
                            breakthroughs and transformations. Their business structure has clearly shifted to the field
 
                            of
 
                            ecological protection and restoration; enterprises in the industry are gradually developing
 
                            towards comprehensive ecological restoration. The future of the ecological restoration
 
                            industry
 
                            has unlimited potential!&quot;</span></em></p>
 
                <p><strong><span>Advantages of the connect system</span></strong></p>
 
                <p><span>Although the function of the final product of this project focuses on using the synergy of
 
                        functional proteins to accelerate the green degradation of PE plastic, the CRISPR/dCas9
 
                        anchoring
 
                        system used to connect functional proteins has quite flexible modularity and programmability.
 
                        That
 
                        is, through the special sequence design of the double-stranded DNA, the spacing, number and
 
                        arrangement of the binding sites of the dCas9: sgRNA complex on the chain can be customized.
 
                        Combining with the SpyCatcher/SpyTag connection system, the anchor of an ordered assay of
 
                        functional
 
                        proteins can be achieved. </span></p>
 
                <p><span> Studies have shown that using this system to connect enzymes on specific metabolic pathways in
 
                        series can effectively accelerate the rate of conversion of the original substrate into the
 
                        target
 
                        product, and greatly increase the yield of the target product. That is to say, the design of the
 
                        double connection system, combined with diversified functional proteins or enzymes, complexes
 
                        with
 
                        distinct function can be generated, enabling them to play a role in many known or potential
 
                        fields,
 
                        such as industrial production, basic scientific research, analysis and testing!</span></p>
 
                <hr />
 
            </div>
 
            <div class="section" id="section5">
 
                <h2 id='experts'><span>EXPERTS</span></h2>
 
                <ol>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>“Increasing the concentration of linearized plasmid and freshly preparing your
 
                                competent
 
                                cell, these two methods may improve your high-voltage electroporation.”</span></p>
 
                        <p><img src="D:\Desktop\HP wiki\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--20.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--20"
 
                                style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 
                        <p><span>Two methods to improve electroporation</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>Yucheng Zhao</span></p>
 
                        <p><span> </span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Background</span><span>*</span></strong></em><span> </span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>We chose </span><strong><span>Pichia pastoris</span></strong><span> as our major
 
                                chassis
 
                                and planned to transfer vectors into
 
                            </span><strong><span>P.pastoris</span></strong><span>
 
                                by electroporation. This was a vital step in our whole project, which determined whether
 
                                or
 
                                not </span><strong><span>P.pastoris</span></strong><span> could express the proteins we
 
                                hope
 
                                to get. In order to polish our electroporation methods, we turned to a professor in this
 
                                field for advice.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Why was this person
 
                                        contacted?</span><span>*</span></strong></em>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>We expect some professional suggestions on the electroporation of
 
                            </span><strong><span>P.pastoris</span></strong><span>. Luckily, we got contact with Yucheng
 
                                Zhao, an expert in China Pharmaceutical University, who is major in synthetic biology
 
                                and
 
                                metabolic engineering.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>What we have learned?</span><span>*</span></strong></em></p>
 
                        <p><span>Dr. Zhao provided us with better ways of electroporation. Among those, he emphasized
 
                                the
 
                                importance of linearized plasmid concentration. According to him, the higher
 
                                concentration,
 
                                the better electroporation result would be. Besides, he mentioned that we should freshly
 
                                prepare the competent cells. Finally, he assisted us with the preparation and then we
 
                                gradually mastered this skill. Taken his advice, our experiment went more
 
                                smoothly.</span>
 
                        </p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <ol start='2'>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>“You should evaluate the plastic degradation from not only qualitative but also
 
                                quantitative perspectives.”</span></p>
 
                        <p><span> </span><img src="D:\Desktop\HP wiki\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--21.jpeg"
 
                                referrerpolicy="no-referrer" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--21"></p>
 
                        <p><span>Instruments of detecting degradation products of polyethylene </span></p>
 
                        <p><span>Wenyuan Liu</span></p>
 
                        <p><span> </span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Background</span><span>*</span></strong></em><span> </span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>Our project is about using enzyme complex to degrade plastic waste. Because of that,
 
                                how to
 
                                measure the degree of plastic degradation is an urgent problem for us to solve.</span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Why was this person
 
                                        contacted?</span><span>*</span></strong></em>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>Dr. Liu, a professor from China Pharmaceutical University, is expert in Pharmaceutical
 
                                and
 
                                instrumental analysis research. We hoped to get some advice on degradation detecting
 
                                instruments. So, we interviewed her on those questions.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>What we have learned?</span><span>*</span></strong></em></p>
 
                        <p><span>We learned from Dr. Liu that there were corresponding national standard documents
 
                                containing methods for the analysis of polyethylene degradation, such as Fourier
 
                                transform
 
                                infrared spectroscopy, high temperature gel permeation chromatography and so forth.
 
                                Moreover, she suggested us to evaluate the plastic degradation from not only qualitative
 
                                but
 
                                also quantitative perspectives. Therefore, we decided to apply multiple instrumental
 
                                methods
 
                                to better evaluate the degrading effect of our system.</span></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <ol start='3'>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>“When choosing samples for trail, take their additives into account.”</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>“It is usually measured by multi means to reflect the degradation degree.”</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>“Significant degradation of polyethylene material requires about 3 months, but
 
                                microcosmic
 
                                changes also mean a lot.”</span></p>
 
                        <p><img src="D:\Desktop\HP wiki\IHP\T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--22.jpeg" alt="T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--22"
 
                                style="zoom:25%;" /></p>
 
                        <p><span>Commented on our projects, provided detailed feedback on problems we occurred during
 
                                project development.</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>Chaomin Sun, xx/xx/2021</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Background</span><span>*</span></strong></em><span> </span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>While designing our project, we happened to know Prof. Sun, whose research provided us
 
                                with
 
                                much inspiration. We managed to interviewed him, and received precious advice on the
 
                                whole
 
                                process of our project.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Why was this person
 
                                        contacted?</span><span>*</span></strong></em>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>Chaomin Sun is a professor from Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
 
                                During the early stage of our project, we got to know Prof. Sun by his latest paper
 
                            </span><strong><span>A marine bacterial community capable of degrading poly(ethylene
 
                                    terephthalate) and polyethylene</span></strong><span> on
 
                            </span><strong><span>Journal of
 
                                    Hazardous Materials</span></strong><span>. This paper is about enzymes derived from
 
                                bacteria which have the potential to degrade polyethylene and this result served as a
 
                                confirmation of our idea. Considering that, we were hoping to interview Prof. Sun about
 
                                the
 
                                possibility of microorganism or microorganism-derived protein in degrading polyethylene.
 
                                And, if possible, sought some guidance from him. So, we tried to contact Prof. Sun and
 
                                his
 
                                team members by e-mail.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>What we have learned?</span><span>*</span></strong></em></p>
 
                        <p><span>We obtained many insightful opinions and kind advice from Prof. Sun. He pointed out
 
                                that
 
                                although enzymes are with better specificity and higher efficiency, they are generally
 
                                less
 
                                robust and are tend to be inactivated under non-physiological conditions. As a solution
 
                                to
 
                                this issue, we firstly characterized the stability of our key PE-degrading enzyme, MnP,
 
                                under different physiochemical environment, then we applied semi-rational directed
 
                                evolution
 
                                on it to obtain mutants that have better tolerance on higher temperature, more acidic pH
 
                                as
 
                                well as higher concentrations of organic solvents. Prof. Sun also reminded us that we
 
                                shall
 
                                choose PE samples without additives so that the PE-degradation ability of our system
 
                                would
 
                                not be affected by this factor. Therefore, we cut PE flakes from PE gloves that are not
 
                                only
 
                                deprived of additives, but also resemble PE packaging applied in real world scenarios.
 
                                Also,
 
                                Prof. Sun suggested us to apply multiple means to detect PE degradation, as well as
 
                                extend
 
                                the processing duration of our system on PE, so that to increase the chance for us to
 
                                observe degradation effect. Therefore, we revised our strategy of incubation to make
 
                                sure
 
                                the activity of our degrading system remains optimal.</span></p>
 
                        <p>&nbsp;</p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <ol start='4'>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>“Due to the relative inert properties of polyethylene, it is better to apply physical
 
                                and/or chemical pretreatments on PE before the bio-degrading strategy kicks in.”</span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>Pretreatment of trail samples is necessary</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>Bian Wu</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Background</span><span>*</span></strong></em><span> </span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>During the final stage of our experiment, we constructed every part and incubated the
 
                                complex with plastic samples. Before incubation, how to process the sample became a
 
                                Gordian
 
                                knot. To solve this problem, we sought assistant from Prof. Wu. </span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Why was this person
 
                                        contacted?</span><span>*</span></strong></em>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>Prof. Wu is from Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who is working
 
                                on
 
                                mining, mechanism-analyzing and engineering of biocatalysis-related component. We turned
 
                                to
 
                                him for help, hoping to receive some practical advice.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>What we have learned?</span><span>*</span></strong></em></p>
 
                        <p><span>Prof. Wu affirmed our project design idea and told us that due to the relative inert
 
                                properties of polyethylene, it is better to apply physical and/or chemical pretreatments
 
                                on
 
                                PE before the bio-degrading strategy kicks in. In respond to his advice, we searched for
 
                                articles about PE pretreatment and discovered UV-radiation and thermal pretreatments are
 
                                two
 
                                common approaches. We also noticed one specific article verified that adding Tween-80 in
 
                                the
 
                                system showed an accelerated efficacy for MnP to degrade PE. Therefore, we add Tween-80
 
                                into
 
                                the PE-enzyme mixture to see whether it could enhance the degradation effect of
 
                                MnP.</span>
 
                        </p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span> </span></p>
 
                <ol start='5'>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>“Using ion exchange column to purify your protein may be a better choice.”</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>Expression and purification about protein derived from
 
                            </span><strong><span>P.pastoris</span></strong></p>
 
                        <p><span>Xiaoqiong Pei, xx/xx/2021</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Background</span><span>*</span></strong></em><span> </span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><strong><span>P.pastoris</span></strong><span> is the main producer for our protein. While
 
                                breeding </span><strong><span>P.pastoris</span></strong><span> and purifying the
 
                                protein, we
 
                                faced some problems. AAO, one of our enzymes, seemed to be blocked from smoothly
 
                                secreting.
 
                                Immobilized metal ion affinity chromatography is the common method of protein
 
                                purification.
 
                                However, when purifying the protein containing His-tag, we found that we can hardly
 
                                harvest
 
                                our target protein. Based on problems above, we contacted Dr. Pei with the help of
 
                                UESTC_China.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Why was this person
 
                                        contacted?</span><span>*</span></strong></em>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>Dr. Pei is from Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Science, and is an
 
                                expert
 
                                in </span><strong><span>P.pastoris.</span></strong><span> We talked with her about our
 
                                problems and got valuable feedback.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>What we have learned?</span><span>*</span></strong></em></p>
 
                        <p><span>According to Dr. Pei, </span><strong><span>P.pastoris</span></strong><span> usually
 
                                fails
 
                                to perfectly express protein containing His-tag. Upon most occasions, the His-tag is
 
                                abnormal. As a result, the most common method for protein purification, immobilized
 
                                metal
 
                                ion affinity chromatography with IMAC elution, is not proper any longer. In this
 
                                circumstance, ion exchange column can be a good substitution. Taking that, we
 
                                communicate
 
                                with UESTC_China, a team facing the same problem with us, and created novel and improved
 
                                purification methods. </span></p>
 
                        <p><span>For AAO, the failure of expression can be caused by many kinds of reasons from
 
                                transcription to translation. Dr. Pei suggested us that we get the protein by lysing the
 
                                cells, and then check the enzyme activity. Besides, take care of the abnormalities at
 
                                the
 
                                transcriptional level. Because of that, we designed supplementary trail of qPCR, hoping
 
                                to
 
                                further analyze the problems.</span></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
                <p><span> </span></p>
 
                <ol start='6'>
 
                    <li>
 
                        <p><span>“Before applying for a patent, make sure that your product is novel, creative and
 
                                practical.”</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>Precautions on patent application</span></p>
 
                        <p><span>Weiguang Li, xx/xx/2021</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Background</span><span>*</span></strong></em><span> </span>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>The commercialization of scientific and technological achievements is a recently trend.
 
                                Through this transformation, we can bring the invention out of lab and then into our
 
                                daily
 
                                life, improving its practicability. It is more possible for us to solve the social
 
                                problems
 
                                in this way. However, one of the essential steps in this process is patent application.
 
                                In
 
                                this regard, we turned to intellectual property advisors for help.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>Why was this person
 
                                        contacted?</span><span>*</span></strong></em>
 
                        </p>
 
                        <p><span>Weiguang Li, a lecturer from Intellectual Property Information Service Center, China
 
                                Pharmaceutical University, is experienced in intellectual property. We interviewed him
 
                                for
 
                                details about patent application and related notices.</span></p>
 
                        <p><em><strong><span>*</span><span>What we have learned?</span><span>*</span></strong></em></p>
 
                        <p><span>Our project belongs to innovation patent. However, before applying for a patent, we
 
                                should
 
                                make sure that our product is novel, creative and practical. So, we widely searched for
 
                                the
 
                                similar patents, analyzing their characteristics and effects. And in the further design
 
                                of
 
                                our project, we paid extra attention on its practicability.</span></p>
 
                    </li>
 
                </ol>
 
            </div>
 
 
         </div>
 
         </div>
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Latest revision as of 10:07, 7 December 2021

INSPIRATION

During the initial stage after team CPU_CHINA 2021 was established, we’ve brainstormed for several times to explore how synthetic biology may change the real world from every aspect of our society and lives.

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Fig. 1 Brainstorming.

After multiple heated discussions, the current issue of excessive packaging in express industry captured our attention. In China, with the rapid development of e-commerce, express has gradually become an indispensable part in our daily life. Yet the convenience and efficiency that express delivery brought to us was inevitably accompanied by a large number of waste plastic packaging. These waste plastic packaging can not be easily recycled and reused like other packaging materials. And the white pollution problem they brought has seriously affected the living environment of human beings. With the passion for doing something to change the current situation, CPU_CHINA started from our surrounding environment and tried to carry out related investigations.

LISTEN TO THE WORLD

In sum, by conducting on-site investigations to learn about the production, transportation and disposal of express packaging waste, we specified our resolve of polyethylene degradation, whose settlement is of key importance for alleviating express waste pollution. We also received certain cautions to be paid attention to when designing and evaluating our project. In addition, through summarizing current situations of PE recycling industry and talking to practitioners in the field, we discovered the potential application of our project as a potent pollutant cleanser and resource regenerator.

CHAPTER 1. EXPRESS DEPOSITORIES

In order to explore the story behind discarded express packaging, we focused on their origin by going to the site for acquiring first hand information. The first location that came into our mind was the Cai Niao Courier Station in our campus.

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Fig. 2 Interviewing the staff of the Cai Niao Courier Station.

We interviewed the staff of the Cai Niao Station in China Pharmaceutical University. According to their knowledge, the amount of express delivery and plastic packaging consumed solely by this very station in our school was already considerable. Normally, there are about 7000 received packages at the station per day. On average, every student of the school receives 4.5 packages per week, and this number will increase significantly during sales promotion of many e-commerce platforms. In addition, logistics companies and merchants tend to apply excessive packaging in order to ensure the safety or improve the exquisiteness of the goods before sending them out. All of these factors contributed to the accumulation of discarded packaging waste, which needs to be cleaned up by the staffs for many times on a daily basis.

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Fig. 3 The person who took the packages.

The data and records provided by the staff during this interview revealed to us the shocking volume of express delivery industry, and the accompanying packaging waste, which strongly proved the urgency of this issue. This prompted us to conduct a more veritable research outside the campus to acquire a more comprehensive and realistic understanding, as well as to determine the specific but crucial problem we should tackle. Therefore, the next stop we visited were several residential areas in Nanjing. Similar to the situation in our campus, we found that there were many discarded plastic packaging in the express depositories of the community. After randomly interviewing some residents, we learned the following things:

  1. The development of online shopping in China has led to a boom in the express delivery industry, which clearly benefits everyone. A community resident who was signing for packages told us that everything she needed in daily life can be mostly bought online, thus saving her time of shopping in grocery stores and supermarkets for other meaningful purposes. The storage racks full of parcels in the express depositories also illustrated the importance of express delivery in the lives of Chinese people.

  2. Large numbers of packages can bring not only convenience, but also waste. The staff at the community express depository said that in order to ensure the integrity and safety of goods during their transportation, apart from commonly applied paper boxes as a container of goods, the express companies also have to use plastic packaging materials such as adhesive tapes and inflatable damping bags to seal the package and protect the goods. By the time these packages reached to consumers, unlike the recyclable paper boxes, these plastic packaging materials would be thrown away instantly and turned into garbage--this was a brand new fact that was extremely important. Some other residents who came to pick up the packages also informed us about the inconvenience caused by overpacked plastics on their parcels.

    T--CPU_CHINA--IHP--4

Fig. 4 Talking with residents.

The situations and findings in the residential areas were similar to what we've discovered in the campus. As a result, we realized that without an appropriate treatment, these single-used plastic waste are bound to cause serious consumption of resources, as well as the environmental pollution.

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Fig. 5 A lot of plastic waste.

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Fig. 6 Garbage truck.

 

Feedback:

In light of the acquired findings from the two preliminary visits, we realized that the accumulation of plastic packaging waste had been a problem that requires urgent response and attention. Therefore, bearing the values of sustainable development in mind, members of CPU_CHINA 2021 began to conduct literature investigation and discussions, in search of an potential innovative solution towards this issue, with the hope that we can solve plastic pollution nowadays. During this process, we got to know that the main composition of plastic packaging waste was polyethylene (PE), a type of widely used polymer material mainly consisting of carbon and hydrogen, making it difficult to be degraded under natural conditions. Thus, we became determined to develop a new type of PE degradation method that can effectively accelerate the break down of PE.

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Fig. 7 Lively discussion among members.

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Fig. 8 Discussing project.

Meanwhile, since we were trying to figure out a new solution on plastic waste treatment, it is also of vital importance to know about the current plastic disposal situations to help us precisely modify our project. Therefore, eager to have a more in-depth understanding of the city's waste plastic treatment system, we made a trip to the garbage disposal transit station in Jiangning High-tech District for on-site investigation.

 

CHAPTER 2. GARBAGE TRANSIT STATION

This station is the centralized disposal point of household waste produced in the district. The station staff told us that household waste from the communities will be concentrated in the district-level garbage processing transit station, where the recyclable materials will be sorted out for recycling; the kitchen waste will be sent to special processing device for resource reclamation, generating organic fertilizer as the final product; and other waste will be directly loaded to the garbage transfer trucks for transportation to garbage incineration plants or landfills.

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Fig. 9 Interviewing the staff of the garbage transit station.

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Fig. 10 The staff is disinfecting the garbage truck.

As for our survey object, we learned from this trip that PE belongs to other waste. Its disposal profile showed that part of it will be recycled and reused by professional companies, but the other portions that cannot be recycled will be uniformly transported to incineration plants or landfills in the suburbs.

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Fig. 11 The transportation flow of waste plastic.

Therefore, to close the loop of the journey of disposed plastic waste, we decided to conduct further interview to plastic recycling enterprises, and to make visits to garbage disposal plants.

CHAPTER 3. THE END OF DISCARDED PLASTICS

Plastic recycling enterprise:

Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Co. Ltd

Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Company Limited is a large entity enterprise which specializes in recycling waste plastic into new materials, such as agricultural mulching film, for production and transaction. We contacted the chief manager of this enterprise, Ms. Sun, through team DUT_China, to learn about the existing PE products and the recycling status of PE.

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Fig. 12 We met Ms. Sun and her student, Mr. Liu of Lanzhou Jintudi Plastic Product Co. Ltd with team DUT_China.

  1. Ms. Sun introduced us to the technological process of plastic recycling.

    She told us that China's plastic recycling market only began to develop in recent years. The existing technology is not particularly mature, thus the requirements on waste plastic as raw materials for recycle are relatively high. However, the sources of waste plastics are complex, and they often mixed with impurities such as fabrics, rubber, metals, and silts, making them difficult to be processed for now. So the fact is, there are currently not many types of plastic can be recycled and reused. The remaining portion can only be landfilled or incinerated. There is no doubt that the plastic recycling market has huge development potential in the future, but nowadays the proportion of plastic that can be recycled is still small, which requires the joint efforts of academia and industry to improve this situation.

  2. With increasing emphasis on sustainable development by government, numerous enterprises have begun to develop degradable plastic pipelines. However, they encountered many realistic factors, such as high cost of material, rigorous degradation condition, incomplete degradation and so on. There is still a long way to go for biodegradable plastics to be used on a much wider scale.

  3. As a result, our aim of trying to tackle the issue of unrecyclable PE plastic pollution was highly recognized by Ms. Sun. She affirmed the practical significance of our project, but she also pointed out for us that if we want to evaluate the plastic-degrading efficacy of our system, we must pay attention to the additives in the selected plastic samples for the reason that they might affect the experimental outcome. Also, she suggested that as we carried on designing and modifying our project, there are many governmental regulations and national standards about plastic degradation evaluation that would benefit our design, and we should look them up carefully.

Feedback:

We learned from the interview that due to various realistic factors, both the plastic recycling industry and the bio-degradable plastic production industry have their own advantages to occupy a portion of market share, and their disadvantages that limit the market share from expanding. This phenomenon enlightened us that we should also evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of our project that would define our share of market, in order to determine the implementation of our product. As a result, we hoped to seek more guidance and comments on our project from practitioners in the plastic industry, which prompted us to attend relative industry exhibition or market development forum, where we would have the chance to meet more stakeholders for feedback.

At the same time, we must pay attention to national standards when verifying the plastic degradation efficiency of our system. In response to the advice provided by Ms. Sun, we made adjustments on our experimental design regarding the selection of plastic samples and the evaluation of plastic degradation by adding multiple means of instrumental analysis approach to evaluate the degradation of PE more comprehensively.

 

Plastic disposal plant:

Our last stop is the garbage treatment plant located in Jiaozishan. The unrecyclable PE, together with other urban garbage, were collected by the garbage disposal transit stations in all districts and counties and were transported to here, waiting for their final destinies.

With the increase of the urban population and the improvement of people's living standards, the output of municipal solid waste is also increasing. According to statistics, two-thirds of China's 668 cities are surrounded by garbage. The total land area of garbage storage in the country has reached 500 square kilometers, and one-quarter of the cities have developed to a stage where no suitable land is available for storage. China's municipal waste is growing at an annual rate of 8% to 10%, reaching 340 million tons by 2020.

As mentioned before, the unrecyclable PE waste is transported to the landfill for sanitary burial. Such a treatment method makes the degradation of municipal solid waste very slow, not to mention the strategy of accelerating their degradation is relatively scarce. Thus, these accumulated waste will inevitably lead to a huge impact on the environment for a long time.

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Fig. 13 Interviewing the staff of the plastic disposal plant.

Fig. 14 Watching the scale video of the landfill site together with the staff.

The technicians managing the landfill told us that the natural degradation process of municipal waste is accompanied by occurrence of multiple physical, chemical and biological reactions in reality. During this process, microorganisms may play a leading role in biodegradation of the waste. Therefore, we suggest that applying biological factors to accelerate the disappearance of plastics in landfills should be an ideal approach to alleviate the serious white pollution.

SUMMARY

We shared the collective information with other members of the team. By integrating results of preliminary literature investigations and feedback from field researches, a consensus was established in the whole team that microbes and their associate enzymes can play an important role in promoting degradation of many types of pollutants, including plastic wastes. So our team further skimmed through a lot of extra literatures and databases hoping to discover agents that have the potential to degrade PE. After putting up extensive efforts, we discovered manganese peroxidase (MnP), a lignin peroxidase derived from the white-rot fungus Phanerochaete chrysosporium. It has been reported in literature that MnP secreted by the fungus still has a significant degradation efficiency when applied on the PE film alone. Therefore, we decided to focus on this very enzyme and eventually designed a polyethylene degradation system based on three functional protein and two connect systems. We named it "Polyethylene Degradist", or PEDe.

For details, please see Design.

At the same time, based on the design of our PE-degrading system, we have clarified our brief product positioning. Our product, the PEDe., can be used to solve the pollution of the existing enormous amount of discarded PE waste towards the soil and water, as well as to improve the resource utilization rate so that the existing landfills can maximize their effectiveness. Therefore, our project can provide a positive influence for the environment. CPU_CHINA hopes that our efforts can help the world to recover from the burden of white pollutions.

MADE OUR VOICE HEARD

As the theme and design of our PE-degrading system were settled, we proceeded to transform concepts into entities. During this process, stakeholders, practitioners and experts were met, consulted or interviewed in order to receive guidance that helped to determine market positioning of our product, raise public awareness of waste sorting, tackle problems of verifying project feasibility, and most importantly, answer the question of how would our product be implemented in the real world.

EXPERTS

click number for more details

INDUSTRY EXHIBITION & MARKET DEVELOPMENT FORUM

In order to further explore the market system and determine the business model of our product, we participated in the 2021 China (Nanjing) Plastics Industry Exhibition & Biodegradable Plastics Chemical Technology and Market Development Forum held in Nanjing International Exhibition Center on June 17, 2021. On this exhibition, we interviewed stakeholders from Wujiang Green Forest Resources Recycling Company Limited and SANER International.

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Fig. 15 Industry Exhibition & Market Development Forum visit card.

Wujiang Green Forest Resources Recycling Company Limited

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Fig. 16 Taking photo with Ms. Lin.

Interviewee: Ms. Lin, General Manager.

Enterprise attributes: Recycle and utilization of renewable resources

Interview content:

  1. A Brief introduction of the main business of the enterprise.

The enterprise recycles scraps, defective products generated in the factory and daily necessities (cosmetics, toiletries). They set up sorting points and deep-processing plants in China and Japan to classify and recycle the collected plastic waste. With the help of physical, chemical and other kinds of methods, plastic waste is transformed into new plastic particles.

  1. The source of plastic waste.

Most of the recycled plastic waste comes from China. The current recycling situation is relatively good. The recyclable plastic waste will be purchased directly from plastic manufactories or companies. Compared with recycling from the garbage disposal station, it is more efficient and more professional. A part of the domestic waste collected by the recycling station can also be used, but specific evaluation and classification are required.

  1. The prospects of the plastics market.

According to the current orientation of policies in China, and the development trend of global environmental protection, the future plastics market will definitely develop towards the direction of degradability and recycling. Degradable plastics can solve the problem of plastic pollution from the source, while plastic recycling uses different technologies to make recycled discarded plastics into plastic particles for reuse, which can create greater economic value. But there is still a long way to go for the ideal future.

  1. Advice on our project of plastic degradation.

Mr. Lin expressed appreciation on our ideas, but he also pointed out that we must pay attention to practical issues, such as cost and budgets, as well as the project's possibility to be applied to reality, etc. He reminded us that the transformation of technology into products is a difficult process, thus we should contact various stakeholders for suggestions, and analyze the economic effects that can be created by our products.

 

SANER International

Fig. 17 Taking photo with Manager Shen.

Interviewee: Manager Shen

Enterprise attributes: Recycling and reusing of plastic

Interview content:

  1. Main business of the enterprise.

The main business of the company is to recycle waste plastic and use them to produce new plastic products through crushing, washing, and pelletizing. But unlike other companies, the main raw materials of this company are plastics in household waste.

  1. The main source of raw materials.

Most of them come from Europe, America, Japan and other regions. Only a small amount of them comes from China. Because the foreign waste classification system is more mature and the plastic recycling market is also more developed, the recycling work is easier. China's garbage classification started later and there are still many areas that need to be improved.

 

Summary

  1. Through communication with stakeholders, based on their feedback, we learned that besides technology itself, we also need to pay attention to the process of transforming technology into products and assess the economic benefits of products. Therefore, after that, we made a business plan for PEDe. to analyze the market or competition and formulate marketing strategies.

    For details, please see Entrepreneurship.

  2. We were reminded that the domestic waste classification is not yet mature enough, as it is the reason why the raw materials for plastic recycling come from foreign regions. Therefore, we decided to use the iGEM platform to promote the importance of waste sorting to the masses, hoping to raise public awareness of waste sorting. Based on this, we have opened a waste sorting publicity activity.

    For details, please see Education.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ONLINE

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Fig. 18 Taking photo with Manager Wang.

Interviewee: Manager Wang

Enterprise attributes: "Internet Plus" service platform for environmental protection industry

Interview content:

  1. Main business of the enterprise.

The main purpose of this enterprise is to build an information exchange platform for green companies, such as degradable plastic production companies and plastic recycling companies, to display their marketing and purchasing information. Also, the platform promotes environmental protection technologies, as well as pollution control methods on a daily basis. There are websites and apps ready for use.

  1. Advice on our project of plastic degradation.

There are many companies in this area that they have cooperated with. From an academic point of view, our idea and technology are with high value and significance, which is awesome and worth of praise. When these technologies become more mature, Environmental Protection Online is willing to cooperate with CPU_CHINA to further promote our products and concepts.

  1. Suggestions for the promotion of the CPU_CHINA project

Nowadays, young people are becoming more accustomed to receiving information from the Internet, without the rapid development of online social media not could be true. Therefore, CPU_CHINA can make use of Weibo, Bilibili, YouTube and other online platforms to expand influence when promoting our project. In addition, we can implement some more interesting ways to attract public attentions.

 

Summary:

Members of human practices gained a lot from this conversation. Based on the inspiration we acquired, CPU_CHINA set up official accounts on major social platforms, planned an art exhibition named Meddy: Relight My Star and produced comic strips. All of these have won the favor of the public and provided great help for the promotion of our project.

For details, please see Education and Meddy .

 

ECOLOGY ENVIRONMENT BUREAU OF NANJING

After determining the project positioning and related technologies, we contacted the staff of Ecology Environment Bureau of Nanjing by phone and consulted their opinions on our project.

The Ecology Environment Bureau is a functional organization of the local government in charge of environmental protection.

Fig. 19 Ecology Environment Bureau of Nanjing.

(The marketization of public services does not mean the transfer of government 's responsibility. So the Ecology Environment Bureau is still responsible for supervision and management.)

After inquiring relevant laws and regulations, we found that the government has paid great attention to the phenomenon of excessive packaging in the express industry and has issued regulations to restrict it. The Ecology Environment Bureau of Nanjing expressed support for our project and advised us to focus on the practical meaning of this project. The staff suggested that we try to advertise the project for investment through various ways, and transform the project into products when the technology is mature. At the same time, we should determine the product orientation for subsequent promotion. They also reminded us to focus on risk assessment and control as the project proceed.

PRACTISE IN REALITY

END USER

The main end users of our product are garbage disposal plants and government environmental protection departments, supplemented by non-profit organizations, ecological restoration companies, and biotechnology companies.

HOW TO USE

Our entire system can be distributed to users in the form of protein/nucleic acid freeze-dried powder. A set of product includes four types of protein freeze-dried powders and four types of nucleic acid freeze-dried powders. After receiving the product, the user only needs to re-dissolve the powder into designated solutions, and assemble the entire degradation system in a few simple steps as instructed. Subsequently, the assembled system can be directly applied to the surface of PE. By adding the required substrate solution, the degradation reactions will be activated.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT

Based on the novelty of our plastic degradation product, PEDe. will start promoting from a small scale. Taking the Jiaozishan Landfill, Tianjingwa Landfill, and Shuige Landfill in Nanjing as examples, the construction of the three landfills have played a vital role in solving domestic garbage outlet and realizing harmless waste treatment for the city. We planned to set the three Nanjing municipal landfills as the starting point of our product, to explore the commercialization potential of PEDe.. Through seeking cooperation with the government, biotechnology companies and non-profit organizations, a transaction can be concluded with the landfill to degrade the collected PE plastic waste. And by gradually expanding the product market, we hope to realize a comprehensive development in many provinces and cities across the country, and finally promote out product to the world. Entrepreneurship

FUTURE

Comprehensive ecological restoration

Based on the principle, the final product of this project has the potential of degrading polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, azo dye and other organic pollutants in addition to PE, which are also the causes of water and soil pollution. Therefore, PEDe. can be used to explore more possibilities in the field of ecological restoration beyond degrading PE, such as cooperating with ecological restoration companies to help them complete the comprehensive management of the ecological environment.

"Nowadays, the Chinese government pays more attention to the negative impact on the environment during the process of economic development, and continues to increase its efforts in environmental governance. The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that efforts should be made to solve environmental problems, and the government has issued relevant policies to promote water and soil conservation, urban ecological restoration, land management, river, lake and wetland protection, marine ecological protection and other fields. With the strong support of national policies and the rapid growth of market demand, the ecological restoration industry has developed rapidly and the market scale has continued to expand. From 2015 to 2019, the scale of fixed asset investment in China's ecological protection and environmental governance industry has gradually increased, with an average annual compound growth rate of 21.27%, and the market size is expected to reach 956.3 billion yuan in 2021. At the same time, traditional landscaping companies have been seeking business breakthroughs and transformations. Their business structure has clearly shifted to the field of ecological protection and restoration; enterprises in the industry are gradually developing towards comprehensive ecological restoration. The future of the ecological restoration industry has unlimited potential!"

Advantages of the connect system

Although the function of the final product of this project focuses on using the synergy of functional proteins to accelerate the green degradation of PE plastic, the CRISPR/dCas9 anchoring system used to connect functional proteins has quite flexible modularity and programmability. That is, through the special sequence design of the double-stranded DNA, the spacing, number and arrangement of the binding sites of the dCas9: sgRNA complex on the chain can be customized. Combining with the SpyCatcher/SpyTag connection system, the anchor of an ordered assay of functional proteins can be achieved.

Studies have shown that using this system to connect enzymes on specific metabolic pathways in series can effectively accelerate the rate of conversion of the original substrate into the target product, and greatly increase the yield of the target product. That is to say, the design of the double connection system, combined with diversified functional proteins or enzymes, complexes with distinct function can be generated, enabling them to play a role in many known or potential fields, such as industrial production, basic scientific research, analysis and testing!