Discover the remarkable potential of plastic-eating bacteria: Nature's solution to combating plastic pollution. Learn more about plastic-eating bacteria now.
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What is Plastic Pollution ?
The oceans and lands are dumped with billion tons of plastic every year. Human uses more than ten million plastic ingredients. Plastic, being a non biodegradable element, is gathering in the ocean and soil and thereby contaminating the ocean and soil. Thus it is becoming a threat for our planet. This overall pollution due to plastic is known as Plastic Pollution.
Impacts Of Plastic Pollution
The flora and fauna of the sea and various marine animals like fishes, seabirds and other species are being continuously destroyed.
• The plastic wastages are also responsible for soil pollution, blockage in water drainage.
• Plastic being a non-biodegradable element, is turning into a threat for our planet.
Timeline of Plastic Pollution
Scientist are trying to find a solution from the last few decades to stop plastic pollution.
• The Journey started in the year 2016, at Osaka, Japan when a species of Plastic eating bacteria namely Ideonella Sakaiensis was discovered.
• Then the Research work was further improved in UK and USA in the year 2018.
• At Shivnadar University , Noida, UP, India, this type of research was also done in 2019.
• Finally in various western countries the same is under process.
• Recently the progress is shifting towards generating plastic eating enzymes or Super enzymes.
• We can expect that within 10 years human will be able to generate plastic eating bacteria effectively.
How Plastic Eating Bacteria Actually Works?
Plastics are basically polymers, which can be produced by the repetition of monomer. Plastic eating bacteria generates some unknown super enzymes which can break the chemical bond in the long chain of polymers. Thus they help in producing smaller components or biodegradable parts.
Which Animal Can Digest Plastic?
Some Researchers found that some caterpillars can digest polyethylene, a kind of plastic. Wax Moth, Galleria mellonella caterpillars live in beehives and feed on honey and wax can digest some plastic.
What is Super Enzyme?
Super enzyme is simply plastic digesting or breaking enzyme. It was initially produced with the help of two separate plastic eating bug discovered at the Japanese waste site in 2016. The scientists made the engineered versions of such enzyme and later two different types of enzymes were linked and finally an enzyme was produced. This enzyme can break the plastic almost six times faster into biodegradable form.
Why Plastic Eating Bacteria Can Be a Threat?
Plastic eating bacteria should also be taken seriously before its use because it possesses some risk factors as mentioned below.
• Some poisonous products may be created by plastic eating Bacteria.
• Breaking down the plastic products by forcefully may create another ways of problems.
• The genetically controlled bacteria cannot be released in environment without proper safety measurements.
Other Ways of Destroying Plastic?
The chemists are recently producing some Nano materials which will be able to break the plastic into water and Carbon dioxide. In 2019 some Magnetic Spring like Carbon Nanotubes were first created which could destroy the micro plastic into carbon dioxide and water. It is expected that in near future more such technology will grow to reduce plastic pollution.
This Article was originally published by me on Medium.com namely : Plastic Eating Bacteria can stop Plastic pollution.
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