KYOTO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, KYOTO, JAPAN AND KEIO UNIVERSITY, TOKYO, JAPAN. A plastic-eating bacterium was discovered by a team of Japanese scientists. This discovery can lead to the development of an alternative method of recycling tons of plastic bottles worldwide.

In search of alternative ways for managing more than 50 million tons of polyethylene terephthalate or PET plastic bottles, a team of Japanese scientists collected 250 PET-contaminated samples including sediment, wastewater and soil from a plastic bottle recycling site.

They screened the microbes that thrive on the samples to see if any of them were eating the PET. At first, they found a group of bugs that seemed to break down a PET film. Further investigation led to the discovery that there’s just one bacteria species that was responsible for the degradation of the PET bottle. The team named it Ideonella sakainesis.

The bacteria utilized 2 enzymes in breaking down the PET. Once it adheres to the surface of the PET, it then secretes an enzyme onto the PET that generates an intermediate chemical. Then, the chemical is taken up by the cell where another enzyme breaks it down. This process provides the bacteria with energy and carbon to grow.

The researchers report that a thin film of PET can be broken down over the course of 6 weeks provided that the temperature is maintained at 86 degrees Fahrenheit by a community of Ideonella sakainesis.

This research needs more studying to determine if the bacteria can totally eradicate the plastics out of the ocean. It is still debatable whether it’s more beneficial to have these bacteria degrading plastics naturally or having the plastic bottles in a recycling bin so that they can be melted in order to produce new ones.

Image courtesy of pixabay.com

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