Plastic waste has become a global environmental issue, with an estimated 8.3 billion tons of plastic produced since the 1950s, of which only 9% has been recycled. Biodegradation of plastics, which involves the
Biodegradation of plastics: mining of plastic-degrading microorganisms and enzymes using metagenomics approachesbiodegradationmetagenomicsplasticJournal of Microbiology - Plastic pollution exacerbated by the excessive use of synthetic plastics and its recalcitrance has been recognized among the most pressing global...
a consequence of the evolution of diverse esterases in response to the ubiquity of ester bonds found in nature6. In contrast, polyether polyols, most typically derived from petroleum, are used extensively in the current plastics industry because the ether bonds in the polymer are not susceptible t...
Biodegradable plastics are a source of carbon and energy for microbes. The biodegradation reaction under aerobic conditions can be described as follows [1]:(1)Cpolymer+O2→CO2+H2O+Cbiomass The carbon of the polymer (Cpolymer) is assimilated by microorganisms (into Cbiomass) and then is either...
Newly developed biodegradable plastics are now appearing in numerous products. However, "biodegradable" products can vary greatly in how long they take to break down. A loaf of bread may require only a couple of weeks, and a piece of paper may vanish in a couple of months, but some "...
These materials have taken the place of wood, glass, and metal in several applications. Plastics, renowned for their durability, were once believed to be non-biodegradable unless subjected to certain treatments. However, the pretreatment of plastics is a complicated and energy-intensive procedure, ...
Most petroleum-based plastics are resistant to biodegradation in the environment. Observation of damage, penetration, and ingestion of plastics by insects and their larvae lead to research on biodegradation of plastics by insects. The larvae of darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), especially Ten...
biodegradation of plastics resorting to selected microbial strains. Herein, the response of the fungus Zalerion maritimum to different times of exposition to polyethylene (PE) pellets, in a minimum growth medium, was evaluated, based on the quantified mass differences in both the fungus and the ...
The perpetual of plastics waste entering the world’s oceans from land-based sources will increase tremendously within the next decade [20]. In fact, as time goes by, these plastic wastes may fragment into smaller pieces of around 0.1 μm–5 mm (i.e., microplastics) scattered in the ...
Although many studies reported on their potential biodegradation by microbes in and from terrestrial environments, very little is known about the biodegradability of these plastics in freshwater systems and only recently more reports on their biodegradation by marine microorganisms/in marine environment were...