I don't have access to the article right now either, but I would like to note to the "this enzyme is going to eat all our stuff!" commenters that, in general, most enzymes don't work very effectively in ambient conditions. The abstract doesn't go into detail into how they acheived the "90% in 10h" metric, but I would assume this was in a precisely controlled solution, incubated at an optimal temperature, with fresh enzyme that hadn't had a chance to start denaturing. You aren't going to be able to spray this on the plastic siding of someone's house and watch it wither away (even if home siding was PET and not, IIRC, vinyl or something.)
I guess I can't rule out at that some recombinant bacterium expressing this enzyme might escape the lab and start causing PET objects to get moldy or develop a patina if left out too long [0]. But that would require that this enzyme somehow benefits the bacterium enough that natural selection wouldn't favor dropping the gene for it.
[0] Hrm, there's a thought - what if your refrigerator needed to be refrigerated?
This all sounds sensible and reasonable, but just at this exact moment, it's hard to feel totally confident that something bioengineered can't possibly create a plague inadvertently. And I'm assuming that covid-19 isn't in fact an example.
It made an impression on me, something I read on HN not too long ago, comparing an epidemic to a nuclear reaction - it's really hard to create a critical mass, and when it's dispersed that's it; the really acute problems are local and temporary, despite peoples' fears of invisible radiation and contamination. But once a global epidemic gets going, essentially the whole world may have reached critical mass and has to be diluted. Maybe obvious when stated, but presenting the comparison in the context of the fears people have of nuclear weapons/power is the point.
The probability is low, but the stakes in the near future of biotech seem higher than anything else people can mess with.
I guess I can't rule out at that some recombinant bacterium expressing this enzyme might escape the lab and start causing PET objects to get moldy or develop a patina if left out too long [0]. But that would require that this enzyme somehow benefits the bacterium enough that natural selection wouldn't favor dropping the gene for it.
[0] Hrm, there's a thought - what if your refrigerator needed to be refrigerated?