The production of virgin plastics poses a monumental environmental threat. Global greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed alone to the production of virgin plastic material. Poor end-of-life plastic waste management and recycling solutions can mean that the overwhelming majority of post-consumer plastic accumulates as pollution, imposing untold environmental damage. Hear how Dr. Matthew Spence used Twist Synthetic DNA to develop a novel enzyme design platform for engineering poly(ethylene) terephthalate (PET) hydrolases that can rapidly degrade PET plastic under harsh industrial conditions while sharing only distant homology to natural enzymes.