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Microbial Degradation of Plastic in Aqueous Solutions Demonstrated by CO2 Evolution and Quantification
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Researchers developed a novel CO2 evolution-based method to measure microbial degradation of plastics in aqueous solutions, providing a reproducible and quantitative way to assess the true biodegradability of both conventional and marketed 'biodegradable' polymers. The method revealed that many commercially available biodegradable plastics degrade far more slowly than claimed under realistic environmental conditions.
The environmental accumulation of plastics worldwide is a consequence of the durability of the material. Alternative polymers, marketed as biodegradable, present a potential solution to mitigate their ecological damage. However, understanding of biodegradability has been hindered by a lack of reproducible testing methods. We developed a novel method to evaluate the biodegradability of plastic samples based on the monitoring of bacterial respiration in aqueous media via the quantification of CO2 produced, where the only carbon source available is from the polymer. Rhodococcus rhodochrous and Alcanivorax borkumensis were used as model organisms for soil and marine systems, respectively. Our results demonstrate that this approach is reproducible and can be used with a variety of plastics, allowing comparison of the relative biodegradability of the different materials. In the case of low-density polyethylene, the study demonstrated a clear correlation between the molecular weight of the sample and CO2 released, taken as a measure of biodegradability.
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Microbial degradation of plastic in aqueous solutions demonstrated by CO 2 evolution and quantification
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A new CO2 evolution method was developed and used to assess the biodegradability of conventional and biodegradable plastics in aqueous environments. The study found that conventional plastics showed negligible microbial degradation while some marketed biodegradable polymers also degraded poorly under realistic conditions, raising questions about environmental claims.
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This critical review examines published claims of microbial polyethylene degradation, finding that while surface colonization and minor chemical changes have been demonstrated, complete biodegradation of polyethylene under ambient conditions remains unproven and methodological rigor is often lacking.
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This critical review examines claims of microbial plastic degradation in the scientific literature, arguing that many announcements of novel plastic-degrading microorganisms overstate the extent and rate of actual polymer breakdown. The authors call for standardized verification methods to distinguish genuine biodegradation from superficial surface weathering in studies of plastic-degrading microbes.
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