Concerned with how plastics are generally recycled, Eleonora Ortolani attempted a rather strange project. She thought of making ice cream flavoring by using recycled plastic. Inspired by the idea that some worms were able to consume and digest plastics, Ortolani wondered whether it was possible for humans to do the same. Despite the difficulty of finding a scientist who would help her turn the project into reality, she searched and found a food scientist from the London Metropolitan University, Joanna Sadler. The two successfully converted plastic into synthetic vanillin which is a cheaper alternative to vanilla.
Vanillin mainly consisted of crude oil, which is also used to manufacture plastic, so the idea was simply to break down the plastic into its simplest form and then use an enzyme to synthesize vanillin. Despite successfully creating ice cream with recycled plastic as the source for its flavoring, neither one of its creators has tasted it yet, as it still needs to be analyzed by the food regulatory bodies before being considered safe to eat.
(Video credit: Inside Edition/Youtube)