The Search for Microbes that Munch on Plastic Waste

Microbes that degrade plastic may be becoming more common as plastic pollution increases.

A new global study that sampled oceans and soil found evidence of more than 30,000 microbial enzymes that can break down 10 types of plastic in the environment. While it’s unlikely that these enzymes can make a significant dent in the 9 million to 14 million m.t. of plastic pollution that accumulate each year, researchers did find that the enzymes are more common in areas with higher concentrations of plastic waste.

“The more enzyme diversity you have, also the higher the pollution, and that was surprising,” says study author Aleksej Zelezniak, an associate professor of systems biology at Chalmers Univ. of Technology in Sweden. “That’s why we came to the conclusion that there is this relationship, that the planet is adjusting to this pollution.”

Plastic is just a form of carbon, which is the main chow for many microbes, and researchers periodically discover new plastic-degrading microbes by sampling waste-heavy areas such as landfills. But identifying plastic degraders microbe-by-microbe is a slow and difficult process, in no small part because many of those microbes don’t grow readily in a laboratory environment. For a faster...