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Microbial and Enzymatic Degradation of Plastic Waste in Water
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This review surveys microbial and enzymatic pathways for degrading plastic waste in water, cataloging enzymes such as PETases and cutinases along with the microorganisms that produce them. The authors assess current limitations of biological degradation rates and discuss how enzyme engineering and synthetic microbial consortia could accelerate plastic breakdown.
This chapter is intended to disclose the more important scientific advances and practical experiences dealing with one of the most relevant environmental concerns today, the presence and control of plastics, plasticizers and their derivatives in aquatic media and more specifically the application of microbial and enzymatic technologies to degrade them or reduce their toxicologic potential; indeed, a wide variety of dissolved plastics and microplastics are classified as “emergent pollutants”, mostly related to endocrine disruption in humans and other species. Based on the available information, this section unfolds in broad lines the landscape of this problem. The first part provides a brief overview of the related plastic pollution statistics by identifying the most abundant plastics and related compounds found in surface water bodies, freshwater sources and wastewater treatment systems. This is followed by a short exercise of familiarization with the deficiencies of the most extended and developed chemical- and physicochemical-based technologies to deal with micro and nano plastics in water and the potential opportunities that this situation opens for introducing bio-based technologies in the deck of alternative or complementary solutions to reduce or eliminate this type of pollution. Likewise, the general mechanism of microbial degradation is described, with specific considerations by group of microorganisms and the main reports of biodegradation by bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi and microalgae. Finally, a section about the biodegradation of the main plastic additives is given.
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