Microbes That Eat Plastic: Can Bacteria Help Solve the Pollution Crisis?
The Plastic Predicament Humanity creates more than 400 million tons of plastic every year and much of it fills our oceans, landfills, and even our bodies in tiny microplastic pieces. Old methods of recycling are not effective and the fact that plastic degrades slowly has turned it into a modern environmental danger. But what if the solution was not more machines - but microbes? Meet the Plastic-Eating Microbes? In 2016, scientists caught the world's attention when they found Ideonella sakaiensis in a Japanese waste dump and realized it could break down PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastics. Not all of it was biodegradation; some biomass was transformed. The bacterium transformed the plastic into basic substances and used them for its nourishment. Afterwards, Pseudomonas , Bacillus subtilis , and even some types of fungi have indicated their ability to break down various plastics. It has been observed that some bacteria survive inside waxworms and mealworms, actually using plas...
