♻️ Reed College’s MicroCycle: Bacteria That Eat Plastic

Plastic waste is one of the world’s biggest environmental challenges — but Chloe Hsy and Luka Mosidze from Reed College are thinking smaller to solve it. Much smaller.

Their project, MicroCycle, uses specially cultivated plastic-eating bacteria to break down unrecyclable plastics and transform them into valuable industrial chemicals. It’s a bold idea that blends biology, chemistry, and environmental science into a sustainable circular-economy model.

The Reed team’s innovation not only tackles a massive waste problem but also reimagines what’s possible when science and creativity collide.

🎥 In their Invent Oregon feature, watch as Chloe and Luka bring lab research to life and explore how microscopic organisms could reshape our planet’s approach to waste.

👉 Full video available now — see how MicroCycle is turning the impossible into the sustainable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNLtgqFiD7Q&list=PLzI8p8YSTABxeqIoBasbY7fBn_32AOwZs&index=6