Damian Carrington: Scientists find bug that feasts on toxic plastic
A bacterium that feeds
on toxic plastic has been discovered by scientists. The bug not only breaks the
plastic down but uses it as food to power the process. The bacterium, which
was found at a waste site where plastic had been dumped, is the first that is
known to attack polyurethane. Millions of tonnes of the plastic is produced
every year to use in items such as sports shoes, nappies, kitchen sponges and
as foam insulation, but it is mostly sent to landfill because it it too tough
to recycle.
When broken down it
can release toxic and carcinogenic chemicals which would kill most bacteria,
but the newly discovered strain is able to survive. While the research has
identified the bug and some of its key characteristics, much work remains to be
done before it can be used to treat large amounts of waste plastic. “These findings
represent an important step in being able to reuse hard-to-recycle polyurethane
products,” said Hermann Heipieper, at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental
Research-UFZ in Leipzig, Germany, who is one of the research team. He said it
might be 10 years before the bacterium could be used at a large scale and that
in the meantime it was vital to reduce the use of plastic that is hard to
recycle and to cut the amount of plastic in the environment.
More than 8bn
tonnes of plastic has been produced since the 1950s and most has ended
up polluting the world’s land and oceans, or in landfill dumps. Scientists say
it threatens a “near permanent contamination of the natural environment”. The research, published
in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, identified a new strain of Pseudomonas
bacteria, a family known for its ability to withstand harsh conditions,
such as high temperatures and acidic environments. The researchers fed it
key chemical components of polyurethane in the laboratory. “We found the
bacteria can use these compounds as a sole source of carbon, nitrogen and
energy,” Heipieper said...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/27/scientists-find-bug-that-feasts-on-toxic-plastic
