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Impact of the non-biodegradable plastics and role of microbes in biotic degradation
Summary
This review explores the persistence of non-biodegradable plastics in the environment and the potential for microorganisms to break them down, noting that annual global plastic production has reached approximately 300 million metric tons with roughly half discarded within a year of manufacture. The authors survey current knowledge of microbial degradation pathways and the challenges of achieving meaningful plastic breakdown in nature.
Plastic is a group of elastic organic compounds whose definition has radically changed from being a large family of useful polymers to an indispensable part of life. We might say we are residing in the “era of plasticene”. If we simply pause and look around, we would realize that a majority of things in our daily life comprise plastic polymers. Currently, the international production of these polymers has spiked to around 300 million metric tons annually. Surprisingly about 50 percent of the products are discarded within a year of fabrication. Once discarded ‘outside’ they end up ‘somewhere’ and start exerting their disruptive consequences. Despite its enormous utility, it is now being increasingly known that these polymers are surely not without their downsides. Several steps are taken and even more, are being investigated so the mayhem of plastic doesn't prove for a "no pilot in cockpit" situation. Here we have conducted a review work of the available literature on various biological entities that can utilize plastic while at the same time focusing our attempts to assemble information regarding the probable enzymes that do it. We have also provided a report on the effect of different plastics on the ecosystem and the various management alternatives out there.