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Biotechnology for the mitigation of plastic waste from the oceans
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This review examines biotechnological approaches for breaking down and removing plastic waste from marine environments, including enzymatic degradation, microbial biodegradation, and genetically engineered organisms. Researchers find that while promising, these biological solutions are still far from being deployable at the scale needed to address ocean plastic pollution.
In contemporary times, the term “plastic” represents a family of polymers that are synthetically developed and have the property of being deformed without breaking. Since the beginning of its manufacturing at industrial levels, the amount of the world’s plastic production has already risen over 20,000%. Most of the produced plastic ends up having the sea as the end destination and it is known that there are toxic compounds associated with its decomposition that can cause serious problems to the ecosystem and to marine fauna. Biotechnology, as an area of study that integrates several areas of science, is committing to develop methods that may be useful in reversing the impacts that improper disposal of plastic can cause in the environment. The development of biodegradable materials and faster degradation tests with selected microorganisms have been the most effective biotechnological techniques, although they do not yet have a major impact on existing pollution mitigation. This paper will discuss the current accumulation of plastic in the oceans, as well as some of the biotechnological alternatives adopted to reverse the amount of plastic material discarded annually which ends up in the sea.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.