Description
Plastic waste leads not only to pollution but is also a huge threat to our environment. But a study shows that bacteria can eat plastic waste and easily digest it. This has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments by Ph.D. Maaike Goudriaan student at the Royal Netherlands for Sea Research (NIOZ). Based on a model study with plastic in artificial seawater in the lab, Goudriaan found that bacteria could break down about one percent of the plastic they ate each year into CO2 and other harmless substances. For these experiments, Goudriaan had a special plastic made from a different form of carbon (13c). When she fed that plastic to bacteria after treating it with "sunlight" (a UV lamp) in a saltwater tank, she saw that that special version of carbon appears as CO2 on top of the water. "The treatment with UV light was necessary because we already know that sunlight partially breaks down plastic into bits of bacteria for bacteria," explains the researcher.
It was already known that the Rhodococcus Ruber bacterium could form a so-called biofilm in nature on plastic. It has also been measured that the plastic disappears under that biofilm. For these experiments, Goudriaan had a special plastic made from a different form of carbon (13c). When she fed that plastic to bacteria after treating it with "sunlight" (a UV lamp) in a saltwater tank, he saw that that special version of carbon appears as CO2 on top of the water. Based on Goudriaan's calculations of the total breakdown of plastic into CO2, bacteria can break down about one percent of available plastic per year. "That's probably an underestimate," she adds. “We only measure the amount of carbon-13 in CO2, so not in the other breakdown products of plastic. There will certainly be 13c in various other molecules, but it's hard to say how much of that was broken down by UV light and how much was digested by the bacteria." Marine microbiologist Goudriaan is very excited about plastic-eating bacteria; However, she emphasizes that microbial digestion is not a solution to the huge problem of all the plastic floating in our oceans. Therefore, more study, research and development is needed for our planet.
