Screening and Isolation of Polypropylene Degrading Fungi from Waste Dumping Site, Kolhapur, India

Abstract

Polypropylene (PP) and other plastic wastes are found to accumulate in the environment, creating significant ecological issues. They are determined to be considered non-biodegradable, It has been established that once it enters the environment, it stays there permanently. The present investigation aims to biodegrade PP without physical treatment and exposing it to UV light and sunlight exposed to potential fungi isolated from the soil of solid waste dumping site based on 18SrRNA analysis and the isolated strains were identified as 98.54% similar to Cladosporium sp. The fungal strain was submitted with Gene Bank accession number ON024632 and registered as a Cladosporium halotolerans strain SUK PRAKASH. The degradation was performed for 8 months of incubation in the aqueous medium. The biodegradation of polypropylene FTIR spectroscopy was performed to further examine the sheets, and the results indicated that perhaps the bonds between the sheets were weakening and breaking. The biodegraded samples of without treated PP sheets, UV-exposed PP sheets, and sunlight-exposed PP sheets exhibit weight loss of 4.2%, 6.1%, and 8.6% respectively.