Plastic bottled water serves an important role in storing water for extended periods of time when it is essential, such as in times of drought and famine. Unfortunately, these bottles have a limited shelf life due to many factors, among them being the presence of microplastics. Microplastics are defined as tiny plastic particles that are less than five millimeters in size. The leaching of microplastics into the water is a significant factor in limiting the shelf life of bottled water. Recent studies have identified promising bacterial strains for microplastic degradation. Ideonella sakaiensis can break down PET through specialized enzymes, while Stenotrophomas pavanii has recently been shown to degrade it at ambient temperatures. While these studies show that bacteria have potential viability to effectively degrade microplastics, significant limitations impede practical implementation. Current bacterial strains exhibit slow degradation rates requiring weeks to months for complete breakdown. Substrate specificity limits effectiveness across diverse bottle materials. Environmental constraints within commercial bottled water—including low nutrient availability and temperature fluctuations—reduce bacterial efficiency. We propose a proof of concept solution to these limitations utilizing genetically modified BL21 E. coli transformed with a custom plasmid containing the plastic degrading PETase gene working in tandem with naturally existing cold-shock dormancy proteins in order to prove the viability of selective dormancy as an effective method of optimizing and regulating microplastic degradation by bacteria in a bottled water environment. This design could dramatically increase the shelf life of bottled water,thereby increasing its availability in times of water scarcity.