Microbes and plastic waste management
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EDITORIAL
Microbes and plastic waste management Samina Mehnaz1 · Ayesha Javaid1
© Society for Environmental Sustainability 2020
Environmentalists around the globe are concerned about emission of greenhouse gases, depletion of ozone, synthetic and non-degradable chemicals-produced by the industry in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, plastics, polymers, etc. Microbes are involved in many processes that help in improving the environment; bacteria, fungi, protozoa, bacteriophages and even nematodes are responsible for environmental sustainability as they contribute in several ways in the ecosystems. Removal of heavy metals from ground water and soil, increasing soil fertility, nitrogen fixation, nutrients solubilization, eating bad microbes, degrading the plastic, producing the biodegradable plastic; just to name some mechanisms these organisms use for improving the environment. Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) represent ~ 92% of plastic production. Degradation of synthetic plastic is a global issue affecting almost every ecosystem on earth. It takes years to get plastics degraded by natural mechanisms as microbes take long to understand the nature of compounds used in these recalcitrant products. Possible solution to tackle this menace is to discover the microbes that can degrade plastics and enhance their ability to do so. Many organisms including bacteria and fungi are reported to degrade the synthetic plastics. Penicillium simplissimum was reported for modest degradation of plastic (Yamada-Onodera et al. 2001). Nocardia destiroides was reported for the degradation of PE (Bonhomme et al. 2003). Yoshida et al. (2016) reported faster biodegradation of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) by a microbial consortium including a novel bacterium Idionella sakaiensis. A Pseudomonas strain isolated from soil of plastic dumping site was reported to grow on polyurethane oligomers and monomers (Cardenas Espinosa et al. 2020). Three years ago, caterpillar of wax moth Galleria mellonella was reported to degrade PE (Bombelli et al.
* Samina Mehnaz [email protected] 1
School of Life Sciences, Forman Christian College (A Chartered University), Lahore 54600, Pakistan
2017). However, a major breakthrough which can lead to large scale degradation of plastics is still awaited. Environment friendly polymers could be the substitutes for recalcitrant synthetic plastics. Biodegradable plastics are now being developed by incorporating biopolymers into conventional plastics or by microbial fermentations. Biopolymers have excellent biodegradability, biocompatibility and varied applications. Currently, polyhydroxy alkanoates (PHAs), polylactic acid (PLA), and polybutylene adipate-coterephthalate (PBAT) are well-known biodegradable polyesters that are commercially available in the market (Kim et al. 2017). The PHAs are synthesized hydroxy-fatty-acids within the microbial cells and stored as lipid inclusions when carbon is in abundance and nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen or sulfur are limited. They are readily degraded by
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