Research Frontiers in Sustainability: Plastic-Eating Bacteria

     Scientists have now found a solution to possibly solving the vast pollution crisis, in a bacterium Pseudomonas putida. Usually, plastic products end up buried in a landfill and are hard to biodegrade, since it includes polyurethane, a synthetic chemical compound. However, according to findings published in the Frontiers in Microbiology journal, a group of German researchers have found that this bacterium can in fact break down and eat plastic. Pseudomonas putida feeds on polyurethane diol, which is often what is coated on plastics to help protect them from corrosion. Hemann Heipieper, a senior scientist at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, states optimistically that “this finding represents an important step in being able to reuse hard-to-recycle (polyurethane) products.”

     Polyurethane is a polymer, a large molecule that consists of smaller building blocks called monomers. This polyurethane, which makes up plastics, is why they are so difficult to break down. The polymer is the reason why plastics often overpopulate most landfills since microbes cannot decompose the polymer. This bacterium is a hopeful sign as it sees to continue to destroy plastics and decrease plastic pollution in the world. Although its impact is minimal, since one bacterium itself cannot break down big polyurethane polymers, scientists will continue to research this bacterium, before presenting commercial biodegradation procedures. This bacterium is an important and promising stepping stone towards potentially resolving this important problem in the future.

Want to learn more?

Discovery of Plastic-Eating Bacteria Marks Breakthrough For Scientists