An Effective Study on Rapid Degradation of Polythene Bags and Plastic waste by Microbial Species

Abstract

Human beings from the ancient era are in the path of inventing new things. Human beings have invented and developed so many things which are very much useful. One of those useful product is plastic-which constituents wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic polymers. Polyethene is the most common plastic. The annual global production is around 80 million tonnes (Piringer and Baner 2008, p. 32.) In order to fulfil the demand of out bursting population of the world, huge quantity of polythene is produced for numerous uses such packaging (plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes, containers including bottles). This invention of plastic by human beings has become threat to mother earth, as the plastic constitutes major share in land pollution on the earth. Plastic pollution has adverse effects on human beings, animals, birds, land, water and our total environment. We have observed that many landfills contain majorly polythene bags, water bodies in many areas are clogged due to excessive dumping of polythene bags. In this study, we study a method for rapid degradation of polythene bags and other plastic waste by some microbial species. Some of the bacterial species isolated from landfill soil, plastic industries premises, water bodies clogged with plastic waste etc are capable of degrading polythene under specific conditions. Four microbial species two bacterial (Bacillus, Pseudomonas spp.) and two fungal species (Aspergillus, Candida spp.) are capable to efficiently degrade polythene bags. Fermentation study in shake flask technique for 2 months in the laboratory scale has been conducted. Confirmation of plastic degradation was done by physical parameters and FTIR analysis. In future, this method will be devised to degrade polythene bags in household or in huge digesters in large scale level. This study will be very helpful, to minimize plastic pollution in landfills on the earth: making earth a safe place to survive for living creatures.