Plastic items are being an integral part of human life, and rapid growth of plastic industries in cavalier way has resulted in the accumulation of an enormous quantity of plastic wastes in the human world. Unfortunately, it has impaired the natural beauty of the environment and living beings. Due to the extreme use of plastics materials, its being urgent to dispose the plastic waste in eco-friendly way and, the necessity of biodegradation process of plastic wastes has been a great environmental interest in the last few years. Recent discovery of microbial plastic-eating enzyme which can digest even polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – a form of plastic patented has drawn the attention of entire world. Equally, it could be the most powerful tool for the biodegradation of plastic waste which is economical, proficient in technology and eco-friendly in process which could help in the fight against plastic pollution. The efficiency of biodegradation depends on the understanding of the interactions between plastic materials and microorganisms including the enzymes involved in the digestion of plastic polymer. Additionally, the absolute understating of molecular structure of plastic-eating enzyme and the advantageous chemical factors both make the process faster.
Comprehensive studies on the biodegradation of plastics are being carried out in order to overcome the global crisis of plastic pollution associated with synthetic plastic wastes. It is highly recommended to nurture the advance eco-friendly research by exploring the potential plastic eating bacterial enzyme that could be an option to win the race against plastic pollution which brings the goal of sustainably.
The burgeoning problem of plastic pollution has attracted the unprecedented attention of the global community and the abandoned use of plastics has raised a serious issue of plastic waste disposal and its management. The recalcitrant nature of plastic has made it difficult to degrade naturally, emerging as the greatest threat to human health and environment as a whole. Moreover, the CO2 released by burning plastics create a hazardous atmosphere for both environment and living beings. Additionally, when plastics enter into the food chain as micro plastics, the scenario will be quite disturbing since the health of aquatic and terrestrial lives will be threatened More importantly, it has been estimated that the efficacy of polyethylene is expanding at the rate of 12% and about 57 million tons of plastic waste is being generated annually worldwide. Use of bacterial enzymes is a novel concept to reduce the burden of plastic way in a sustainable way as the outdated methods like land-filling, incineration and recycling have proved to be inadequate for effective plastic waste management. Plastic eating enzymes of soil microorganisms could be a practical source of sustainable future to manage the plastic wastes of our planet. The beginning results of recent some researchers have shown very promising outcome that bacterial enzymes and end metabolites are cable to digest polyethylene terephthalate which is used to make plastic bottles. Identification of bacterial strains with potent enzymes for the biodegradation of plastics will be a cardinal part of sustainable technology via bio-recycling. This concept is based on “by the green for the green” with an aim to open a complete new approach to overtake the global plastic pollution and contamination. The PET-digesting enzymes of locally available soil microorganisms (Pseudomonas spp., Bacillus spp., Actinomycetes and some fungi) can create a new way of true bio recycling system in near future. Furthermore, enzymes could be used as biological washing powder to degrade fatty wastes. In context of plastic pollution in each corner of our planet, this approach could fuel in bio-recycling revolution locally and globally. On the other hand, the techniques are economically applicable, doable and are earth friendly in long run of waste recycling.
The indecent management of plastic wastes is deteriorating the natural beauty of the world and its being a severe public burden since couple of decades where about 2.7 tons of plastic garbage is producing in daily basis and more than 16% of the urban waste is comprised of plastic items. Hence, development and immediate implementation of eco-friendly plastic recycling process is demanding in an urgent basis. In this worst scenario, certainly biodegradation and bio-recycling will be a sustainable technique to reduce the environmental and human burden of plastic pollution. Indeed, this green approach will discourage the use of hazardous methods which are being applied for the reduction of the plastic wastes.
Some of studies have affirmed that bio-degradation of plastic materials will be a real recycling revolution. Literature suggests that the breakdown of plastic polymers by bacterial enzymes can be visualized even on culture media. Along with this, weight loss measurement and change in polymer bond after decomposition has also been found to be effective. For instance, different chromatographic techniques are available for the identification of products like laccase, an enzyme produced by lignin biodegrading fungi, can be simply detected which helps in the oxidation of the hydrocarbon backbone of polymers.
Hence, this concept will be sensibly effective locally and globally, since the approaches are cost-effective, doable, bio-friendly, and are effortlessly sustainable to carry. The main motto is to identify plastic-eating microbes from soil and their validation of ability to degrade plastic polymers. At the end, it will positively aid the commercial value of plastic waste management via eco-friendly process and the beyond.
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