Microorganism-Based Bioremediation Approach for Plastics and Microplastics Wastes

The use of plastics is very common in day-to-day life, but it also has some drawbacks, including pollution, both in soil and in air. Burning plastics releases a lot of poisonous compounds that are very harmful to health, so microorganisms can assist in tackling this problem. The usefulness of the enzymes which are released by bacteria makes them crucial to the decomposition of plastics. In this chapter, our own study has been discussed which was focused on identification of microorganisms that could break down plastic. Three distinct organisms were isolated from soil and examined for their potential to breakdown the plastic. In this study, polyethylene was employed to test the deterioration. One isolated organism out of five showed the most low-density polyethylene (LDPE) degradation. The organism was only partially recognized, but it was determined to be a species of the Bacillus genus. Upon comparing the weight loss before and after treatment with the organism, this species demonstrated LDPE film degradation around 10% in 30 days. Thus, employing microorganisms as an alternate method of plastic degradation can be very beneficial while posing no risk to human health and offering an environmentally friendly procedure.