Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have successfully engineered a strain of Escherichia coli bacteria to convert plastic waste, specifically polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from plastic bottles, into paracetamol, a widely used painkiller also known as acetaminophen. This innovative process involves genetically modifying the bacteria to digest plastic molecules and ferment them into the pharmaceutical compound within 24 hours. The technique represents the first documented case of synthesizing paracetamol directly from plastic waste using live microbes, achieving a conversion efficiency of approximately 92 percent of the broken-down plastic. While the breakthrough offers a promising sustainable approach to both pharmaceutical production and plastic waste recycling, researchers acknowledge that scaling the process for industrial application remains uncertain. The study was published in the journal Nature Chemistry, highlighting a novel intersection of synthetic organic chemistry and biotechnology that could pave the way for environmentally friendly drug manufacturing and plastic waste management.