Scientist Found A Bacteria Which Feasts On Plastic .... Revolution in Pollution Control

This week, psychologist Susan Blackmore suggests we use a friendly bug that feasts on plastic.It’s a newly evolved polythene-eating bacterium

A group of scientists from at Kyoto University, Japan discovered a species of plastic-eating bacteria which is capable to breaks down fully one of the most common kinds of plastic called Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the type often used to package bottled drinks.

Earlier a group of Yale researchers has led to the discovery of a rare fungus that can break down plastic. And now its found that any microbes that can eat it.

To find the plastic-eating bacteria research team collected 250 PET-contaminated samples including sediment, soil and wastewater from a plastic bottle recycling site.

Next they screened the microbes living on the samples to see whether any of them were eating the PET and using it to grow. They originally found a consortium of bugs that appeared to break down a PET film, but they eventually discovered that just one of bacteria species was responsible for the PET degradation. They named it Ideonella sakainesis.

a-friendly-plastic-eating-bug

Courtesy:: BBC 

Story Link::http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130328-a-friendly-plastic-eating-bug