A team of scientists lead by Marie Espinosa et al. have tested soil samples near waste sites where plastic has been dumped and found a plastic eating bacteria, belonging to the Pseudomonas species, surviving on plastic that is difficult to recycle.
The Pseudomonas bacteria family is known to survive harsh temperatures and environments.
Millions of tonnes of plastic is produced every year. This is used for sports shoes, baby nappies, sponges that we use in our kitchens, foams etc. But, after usage, most of this plastic is dumped into landfill sites because it is both tough and costly to recycle.
When these plastics break down, they release toxic and cancer causing chemicals as by-products. This bacterium appears to be especially fond of polyurethane, a plastic that releases toxic and carcinogenic chemical when broken down. Most bacteria would not survive such chemicals but this particular one seems to feed off of the carbon, nitrogen and energy released from plastic breakdown.
Plastic plagues our environments: drinking water, the ocean, soil, foods and even air! There may still be a decade worth of work still to be done on this plastic eating bacteria. But biological degradation of plastic waste is a promising tool. There are hopes that this could make bio-recycling a more viable option in the future.
Read the scientific journal paper at Frontiers in Microbiology –
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