BIODEGRADATION OF POLYTHENE AND PLASTIC BY THE HELP OF MICROBIAL TOOLS: A RECENT APPROACH

Abstract

Microorganism play a significant role in biological decomposition of materials including synthetic polymers in natural environments, this is called biodegradation. In this review microbial biodegradation of polythene and plastics are discussed. Here we aim to isolate and identify microorganism associated with various polyethylene and plastic degradation in the soil. Polythene and plastic are the two polymers with wide ranging applications. They are recalcitrant and hence remain inert to degradation and deterioration leading to their accumulation in the environment, and therefore creating serious environmental problems. In this context, an attempt was made to study the biodegradation of polythene and plastic strips inside the laboratory (under controlled condition) and outside the laboratory (under natural condition) with the help of microbial tools. In this review, biodegradation of these two polymers under in vitro conditions is reported. An attempt has been made to cover the mechanism of biodegradation, the various bacterial and fungal organisms that have been reported for the same, method adopted for the studies and different characterization techniques followed to measure the extent of degradation.