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Current Progress and Potential Microbial Cornucopia for Plastic Degradation
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This review surveys current progress in identifying and leveraging microbial diversity — including bacteria, fungi, and algae — capable of degrading various plastic polymers across environmental matrices. Microbial plastic degradation represents one of the most promising biological pathways for reducing accumulated microplastic loads in soils and waterways, with potential to lower the chronic environmental and dietary exposure burden on both wildlife and humans.
Plastic pollution has emerged to be the biggest global concern in the modern day. The production of large volumes and different varieties of plastics has led to their huge accumulation and contamination in environmental matrices. Along with plastics, there are...
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Plastic Degradation and Utilization by Microbes: Challenges and Scope
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Plastic overaccumulation in ecosystems has driven interest in microbial degradation as a natural remediation tool, though the slow rate of natural depolymerization and the specificity of plastic-degrading enzymes remain major challenges. Expanding our understanding of microbial plastic utilization pathways could unlock biological strategies for reducing the microplastic precursors that fragment from larger plastic waste.
The implementation of microbes in plastic biodegradation
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Researchers reviewed the role of microorganisms in breaking down plastics, finding that certain bacteria and fungi can degrade specific plastic polymers — a promising but still limited natural mechanism that could inform future biotechnology solutions to the plastic pollution crisis.
Microbial Degradation of Marine Plastics: Current State and Future Prospects
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Microbial degradation offers a promising biological pathway for breaking down the millions of tons of plastic entering the ocean each year, though current microbial capabilities remain limited compared to the scale of the problem. Understanding which microorganisms can metabolize specific polymers is critical for developing bioremediation strategies that could reduce the long-term accumulation of microplastics in marine ecosystems.
Microbial Biodegradation of Plastics and Microplastics: Recent Development
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Researchers reviewed recent advances in microbial biodegradation of plastics and microplastics, identifying key bacterial and fungal species capable of breaking down synthetic polymers and highlighting the biological mechanisms that could underpin scalable plastic waste remediation strategies.
Exploring the Role of Microbes in the Biodegradation of Plastic Waste: Mechanisms, Interactions, and Implications for Sustainable Waste Management-A Review
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This review examines how insects and their gut microbiota use specialized enzymes to biodegrade complex plastic polymers, breaking down plastic waste into non-harmful compounds in a process that could represent a sustainable waste management alternative. Understanding these microbial mechanisms is critical given that 91% of plastic waste goes unrecycled, with the remainder fragmenting into microplastics that contaminate soil, air, and oceans.
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