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The degradation of microplastic by microorganisms: A generous way to treat Plastic waste

Journal of Environmental Studies/Journal of Environmental Studies 2025
Minhaj Ahmad Khan, B S Sreelakshmi

Summary

This review examines microbial biodegradation of microplastics in soil environments, finding that bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus gottheilii can degrade microplastics that accumulate from plastic mulching, sewage waste, and direct deposition, offering a biological pathway to reduce soil microplastic contamination.

Plastics are used for packaging and manufacturing of pipes, bags, medicines and utensils due to its low price, processing ease, flexibility, and corrosion resistance due to its low price, processing ease, flexibility, and corrosion resistance. The overuse of plastics leads to its accumulation in soil. Major reasons for the deposition of plastic in the soil environment are plastic mulching, usage of plastic materials in contact with soil, sewage waste, and by the manual deposition of plastic products into soil. These plastic go through a process called disintegration and becomes microplastics. It is very essential to remove these microplastics from the soil environment, as their absorption by plant roots lead to microplastic presence in fruits of those plants. But there are microorganism that have the capability to degrade these microplastics such as Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus gottheilii. Utilizing these microorganisms is one of the effective method to remove microplastics from the environment.

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