Scientists find bug that feasts on toxic plastic

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Scientists find bug that feasts on toxic plastic

Bacterium is able to break down polyurethane, which is widely used but rarely recycled

Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Fri 27 Mar 2020 05.00 GMT
Last modified on Fri 27 Mar 2020 05.59 GMT

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.

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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.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/27/scientists-find-bug-that-feasts-on-toxic-plastic

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Related: Toward Biorecycling: Isolation of a Soil Bacterium That Grows on a Polyurethane Oligomer and Monomer (Frontiers in Microbiology)

[BigmanPigman]

1. Well that's some good news about our future anyway.

I'll take whatever I can get these days.

Now if they could only find a bug that feeds on toxic tRump.

[MFM008]

2. He makes

Maggots puke.

[Javaman]

3. since plastic is now ubiquitous in our world

I personally welcome our plastic eating bacterium overloards.

[Warpy]

4. Evolution in action

Where there is any source of energy, something will evolve to feed on it.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

5. Is it possible that science may be more valued by the deniers after Covid-19?

Or will they just think God created this bacterium and blow it off? I'm gonna hope something good will happen to save Mother Earth. Thank you scientists.