There are many microbes that can degrade plastic. here links that may help you:

http://www.ots.ac.cr/tropiweb/attachments/volumes/vol51-3-4/03-Kathiresan-Polythene.pdf

http://www.ecmbiofilms.com/documents/ECM-technology.pdf

There are many microbes that can degrade plastic. here links that may help you:

http://www.ots.ac.cr/tropiweb/attachments/volumes/vol51-3-4/03-Kathiresan-Polythene.pdf

http://www.ecmbiofilms.com/documents/ECM-technology.pdf

Hmm! That's Good and are much informative.

Bacillus spp.

Thank you all

Pseudomonas sps. are effective.

Lipase does a pretty good job to, especially Poly-ortho esters

Google it, as many natural plastics are biodegraded effectively...

plastic degradation by microorganisms depend on the plastic type (branched/straight molecules). It is a very slow process. Significant developments required both on the reactor design side and molecular biology side.

BPA degradation is possible by uv in the presence of riboflavin and some quenchers...

Pseudomonas putida is efficient in degrading plastics, i had studied in a article

Chetan sharma's reply is very interesting. I would like to know whether the enzymes from Bacillus spp is capable of degrading the plastic (which polymer?) or the additives present in the plastic?

M working on dis..bacillus flexus and aspergillus niger are effective

Mention which polymer

s. degradands which produces PHAs

Fungi "Phanerochaete chrysosporium" can able to degrade phenolic resin plastic effectively

Back in 2011, a group of students from Yale university found one family of endophytes that can degrade polyurethane and apparently there's a publication related in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Many thanks all, this has solved a lot of problems for me. I belong to the waste management committee of my University and degradation of plastic is a major problem. Now how can one get large amount of this organism to degrade the plastics? Where is there natural habitat?

Hi..frndz it sounds intrest..am workng on degradatn of para nitro pehenol by bacillus spp.

Psudomonas putida can readily degrade p-nitro phenol which is highly toxic to living organsm.

Hi! i am doing m.phil in environmental science. my research work is on enzymes...all the above discussion is very informative for me...

Remember that "plastic" is a very broad term and encompasses a wide variety of different polymers. So while there are some bacteria that can degrade some types of plastic, I think most plastics that are in commercial use these days are generally not efficiently biodegraded. Hence there is a significant effort being made to synthesize new types of plastics that will be biodegradable in the future.

But if you are taking about typical plastic household waste, the vast majority will not be readily biodegraded. However much of it can be recycled.

Hi all, there was recent news frm yale university, this is an organism which feeds only on polyurethane as sole source of food, even anaerobically!!!!!

Isolated from Amazon, we can get in touch with yale to source the organism....

Pestalotiopsis microspora,

Hi all: I thank that the most effective organism are Actinomyctes ,but you must isolate it by your self from garden soil, use plastic as carbon source in medium spcific for actinomyctes try it for weekor more till you have colony then you can study the phsiological factors that increase the degradation of plastic

We demonstrated the biodegradation of crosslinked polyacrylamides and polyacrylates by white-rot fungi. These fungi secrete enzymes and other cofactors to degrade a wide variety of chemicals. The system evolved to degrade lignin in wood but since it is free-radical in nature it is applicable to any number of chemicals.

Pre-treatment with Ozone helps, but will sterilize the plastic. So need an exogenous source of bugs thereafter...

Wahhh its a very informative for me

Pseudomonas stutzeri is alo effective in degrading polypropylene blends...

We demonstrated the biodegradation of polyethylene terephtalate -PET by white-rot fungus from amazon basin. Best result was when the particle were pre treated at 50 ºC. Peroxidase activity were high.

Sorry but I think you'll find measuring degradation by weight loss is actually measuring plasticiser, slip agents, UV protection degradation etc not polythene. Many of these are natural comppounds like adipate, and terephthalate degradation is well documented. What were your negative controls?

Thanks for your observation. Sorry but I think a simple analytical method to evaluate modifications due to polymeric degradation is weight loss. It’s fact that polymer degradation can occurs without necessarily weight loss, but alterations on polymer molecule can be observed. It’s well documented on literature. In our initial screening of fungi with potential to degrade plastic we are also using SEM as tool to surface and morphological observations of polymer before and after be submitted to fungi attack. I can send to you photo if you be interested, (my e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]), and we can exchange ideas on it. Our abiotic and biotic controls tried to eliminate interference of organism characteristics as well as polymer characteristics.

hi, i think till date there are no reports about the degradation of synthetic/conventional/petroleum derived plastics by any type of bacteria. But bioplastics mainly PHA, PHB, PHV and PLA will degrade by so many bacteria like., Ralstonia eutropha, Cuprivadus nector, Bacillus, and Pseudomonas.

Hi., i have also done my summer project the title of plastic degradation of marine microbes...i got the result some marine bacteria have a ability to degrade a polystyrene plastics...

Plastic is a very generic word.

Without citing the well known biodegradable plastics (Polyhydroxyalkanoates, Polylcaprolactone, etc):

- PET ca be partially degraded:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/108561288/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

- Nylon is well degraded by fungi:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=168325

- PVA is completely degraded by Pseudomonas sp.

T. Suzuki, Y. Ichihara, M. Yamada and K. Tonomura , Some

characteristics of Pseudomonas O-3 which utilizes polyvinyl alcohol.

Agric Biol Chem 37 (1973), pp. 747–756.

- Also aliphatic polyesters and polyurethenes are biodegraded:

- Even one of the most stable polymers the polypropylene can be partially degraded :

http://aem.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/59/11/3695

Best

Andrea

DR.MAY AL-DOORI,, We had run experiments on growing soil microbes/''Streptomyces'' sp.isolates on the polymer {rubber}as sole carbon source in synthetic medium ,, the composition of which could be consulted.The breakage of the molecules was shown usin IR spectroscopy methods .

There are several microorganisms isolate from soil, with the ability to degrade plastics including Polyethylene, Polyurethane, Poly(3-hydoxybutyrate) (PH B) and Poly (3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), observe the extent of degradation by analysis of plastics and study of enzymes (such as hydrolytic) involved in the process of degradation. As a low density polyethylene (LOPE) is one of the major sources of environmental pollution, several researchers worked with the pieces of LOPE plastic bags were buried in soil and observed microscopically after 10 months. Fungal strains found attached on the surface of LOPE plastic pieces were identified as Fusarium sp. AF4, Aspergillus terreus AF5 and Penicillium sp. AF6. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) also showed some mechanical damage or erosions on the surface of LOPE pieces incubated with Fusarium sp. AF4. Bacterial strains from soil burial were isolated and identified as Bacilllus sp. AF8, Pseudomonas sp. AF9. Micrococcus sp. AF10, Arthrobacter sp AF11, and Corynebacterium sp. AF12 which are good plastic degraders. These microbes have the capabilitu to produce hydrolytic enzymes and that hydrolytic zones were clearly observed by researchers around the colonies of the bacterial isolates.

Hope you will get more information from a active researchers who are working in plastic bio-degradation throughout the world.

Some paper are available in bacteria can degradation and formation of bio filim formation of broth culture in laboratory

Thank you for all who take any answers specially who put the links for information about this subjuct because it is very important to clean up our nature and climat of our earth .

At all there are fewer reports and evidances about degradation of petrochemichal plastics but the an attempt in this field I hoop it's will be success .

White rot fungi can degrade plastic.

Hi All,

I think we need to be more specific about what we mean by 'plastics' - they are a very diverse group of polymeric organic chemicals eg polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyesters, polyethers and polyurethanes to name a few. Of the ones listed I have not seen credible evidence for microbial degradation of polyethylene, polypropylene or polyethers (and I've had a go myself!). PVC products are degraded, but mostly this is degradation of additives such as plasticisers (eg adipate) not the base polymer itself. polyethers are quite resistant to degradation as ether linkages do not occur much in living biological systems - as such 'etherases' have not be found. polyesters tend to be easily degradable especially if the molecule does not have much branching (branching sterically hinders enzyme activity) and polyurethanes will degrade based on the component 'block' polymer (polyester or polyether).

This does not discount that organisms producing non-specific extracellular enzyme systems (white rot fungi, actinomycetes) may fortuitously degrade resistant polymers - but they will not utilise them as a sole carbon source and must be provided with a co-substrate to get any result at all.

I have been fooled in the past using weight loss as a measure of degradation. It will work if the material you are investigating is composed of only one molecule - if there are additives then beware. For instance you can easily get 4% weight loss on a PVC formulation, but further investigation wlll show no degradation of polyvinyl chloride. I prefer either chemical analyses (GC-MS for metabolites) or physical methods (tensometry etc).

Happy to debate my opinion - and don't let me put you off. I have been sincerely wrong on many occasions! :-)

cheers,

Richard

I agree with Richard Bentham very much. Plastic is a group of polymers showing diverse characters (probably due to the different chemical bonds). I am interested in the degradation of polyethylene, polyurethane,polyvinyl chloride,polystyrene, polycaprolactone which as far as I know are almost not degraded in natural at all. I wonder where we can get the survey regarding which one is the most heavily used plastic in US, and anyone has good review regarding the chemical bonds for those plastics.

Thanks you.

Hi Lei,

polyester polyurethanes (PU) and polycaprolactones (PC) will degrade quite easily. In the 1980' I used to keep my fungal isolates on pieces of sterile polyester polyurethane foam as a sole carbon source in a mineral salts medium in McCartney bottles (Bentham Morton and Allen 1987, Internat. Biodet. Biodegr.). That way the culture would remain active and viable for 3 -6 months.

I also used some of the shorter chain (liquid) polycaprolactones as sole carbon source in agar plates for isolations. If the polycaprolactobne is added when agar is warm and shaken it will emulsify when the agr plate set. the plates need to be 'flamed' to get rid of bubbles.

As an extra hint PC stains with I/KI solution. colonies degrading / solubilising PC on a PC plate can be spotted by flooding the plate with I/KI - there will be a clearing zone around the PC degrading colonies.

hope this helps,

cheers,

Richard

Dear Dr. Bentham,

Thank you so much for your reply.

Is the following the paper you mentioned (based on your research), please?:

Rapid assessment of the microbial deterioration of Polyurethanes

International Biodeterioration

Volume 23, Issue 6, 1987, Pages 377–386

R.H. Bentham,L.H.G. Morton,N.G. Allen

Based on the paper I read, here we have two different PU, ES-PU (polyester-polyurethanes) and ET-PU (polyether-polyurethanes).

For polyester PU, as far as I know, here are a lot of bacteria that can degrade them (using the esterase enzyme), like Comamonas acdovorans; Pseudomonas aureoginosa/chlororaphis/fluorescens. However, polyether-polyurethanes is the one which is difficult to be degraded by bacteria (and also fungi).

As a natural polymer, polycaprolactone, it should be very easily to be degraded, but the best I get by google is Pullularia pullulans which can degrade 12% in 3 months.

I wonder whether there are fungi can degrade polyether-polyurethanes and polycaprolactone quickly? What is more, do you have any ideas regarding the enzyme responsible for degradation of polyester-polyurethanes, please?

The goal for my project is to use a bacterium which express more than one enzymes (by transforming plasmids into it) to degrade at least two types of plastics (which are most widely used). polyester-polyurethanes is one of the plastic.

Thank you,

Lei

Plasticizer degradation have been studied in detail by Eaton and Gibson and Karegoudar and Pujar. The Pujar group is actively engaged in plasticizer degradation research (diethyl phthalate, dibutylphthalate etc degradation). However, since past 10 years some researchers are working on plastic degradations as shown below. Kindly look into this you can find bacteria as wel as fungi are transforming plastics aerobically and anaerobically too

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110328/full/news.2011.191.html

http://eprints.hec.gov.pk/2361/1/2216.htm

Thank you so much. Dr. Shinde, I think now I will focus on some plastics with phthalate or BPA.

Thank all for your valuable information.

Lei

anyone can tell me which universities are working on plastics.can u people tell me the name of any five/

I do work on plastic degradation at Scripps, please let me know how I can help: [email protected]