Mass lost as % of initial film mass · 150 days · 757 m depth · 4.4°C · Misaki, Japan, 2023
Each dot is one film sample. Vertical marks show the mean of four samples per group. Added enzyme: 3% of film weight.
PBS
Polybutylene succinate
PBSA
Polybutylene succinate-co-adipate
PCL
Polycaprolactone
PBAT
Polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate
Thin films, not ordinary discarded objects. Mass loss does not establish the fate of all the carbon or rule out small fragments.
The added enzyme made a large difference for three of the four plastics: their films lost 97–100% of their mass, compared with 1–3% without the enzyme. PBAT responded much less, losing about 12% with enzyme versus 1% without it. The same treatment did not make every material disappear at the same rate.
These were films about 100–300 micrometers thick, exposed in the same cold deep-sea setting. The result is a materials comparison, not evidence that existing ocean plastic can be cleaned up this way. Adding enzyme also reduced some films’ strength in laboratory tests. Read the full explanation of the experiment and its limits.
More Detail, Sources and Data
Four Materials, the Same Treatment
Field exposure ran June 6–November 3, 2023, at the BMS5-2 site off Misaki, Japan: 150 days, 757 meters deep, at 4.4°C. The added enzyme was a cutinase from the fungus Humicola insolens, loaded at 3% of film weight. Each plotted group contains four film samples.
All four materials with both an enzyme-treated and untreated comparison are shown. Two additional materials without an enzyme-treated comparison are not included. Each pair uses the same zero-to-100% scale. Dots are separated vertically only to keep equal values visible; their horizontal positions are the actual measurements.
| Material and treatment | Mean | Four individual samples (%) | n |
|---|---|---|---|
| PBS, no added enzyme | 1.2% | 0.81, 1.48, 1.00, 1.59 | 4 |
| PBS, with enzyme | 97.3% | 94.68, 100.00, 99.12, 95.49 | 4 |
| PBSA, no added enzyme | 3.4% | 2.86, 3.74, 3.79, 3.04 | 4 |
| PBSA, with enzyme | 100.0% | 100.00, 100.00, 100.00, 100.00 | 4 |
| PCL, no added enzyme | 2.5% | 2.50, 2.16, 2.81, 2.67 | 4 |
| PCL, with enzyme | 100.0% | 100.00, 100.00, 100.00, 100.00 | 4 |
| PBAT, no added enzyme | 1.1% | 1.18, 1.10, 1.07, 1.13 | 4 |
| PBAT, with enzyme | 12.1% | 10.30, 8.71, 15.58, 13.99 | 4 |
Source and Calculation
Huang et al., Nature, published October 21, 2026, Figure 3a source workbook and Supplementary Tables 8 and 13. Vastkind recalculated each arithmetic mean from the four original observations and rounded displayed means to one decimal place. No experiments were rerun. The raw points are shown instead of inferred error bars: the supplementary PBS summary’s reported spread does not match either common standard-deviation calculation from the workbook.
Source data reused under CC BY 4.0. This is an original Vastkind visualization, not a reproduction of the authors’ figure. The chart measures film mass loss, not complete conversion to carbon dioxide, harmless residues or ecosystem safety.