Take a walk through the park, the woodland, along a harbor or a river and you’ll probably catch sight of a blight on our environment: PET plastics. Making up a huge part of our highly polluting waste, PET plastics include the plastic bottles that we all use almost every day.
And why are these plastics so damaging? Well they take an incredibly long time to break down. So you’ll see them floating along streams, and blowing around fields. They make up a huge part of the Pacific Garbage Patch, and frequently bottles from decades ago wash up on otherwise beautiful shores.
When PET plastics do eventually break down, they result in microplastics that continue the pollution of our planet, being ingested by fish and humans alike and ultimately wreaking havoc on our bodies.
With this in mind, researchers have long been searching for a solution. And scientists from Northwestern University think they’ve found one.
In an article recently published in the academic journal Environmental Science & Technology, the researchers explain that the bacteria known as Comamonadacae are often found in urban rivers and wastewater systems. What’s more, they usually grow on the plastics that are littering these waters.
The function of these bacteria has been a mystery since their discovery; but the Northwestern-led team have discovered that every one of these bacteria are hard at work digesting the plastics and putting the planet to rights after the extreme pollution caused by humankind.
In a statement, Professor of Environmental Engineering and study lead Ludmilla Aristilde explained how the Comamonas bacterium break down and consume the plastic:
“We have systematically shown, for the first time, that a wastewater bacterium can take a starting plastic material, deteriorate it, fragment it, break it down and use it as a source of carbon. It is amazing that this bacterium can perform that entire process, and we identified a key enzyme responsible for breaking down the plastic materials. This could be optimized and exploited to help get rid of plastics in the environment.”
The discovery opens new possibilities for developing bacteria-based engineering solutions to help clean up difficult-to-remove plastic waste, which pollutes drinking water and harms wildlife.
Since, as Aristilde notes, PET plastics are responsible for half of the microplastics we find in waste water, her team’s study is truly groundbreaking.
The ultimate solution is the reduction of PET plastic usage, from the current level of 12% of global plastic use, to as minimal as possible through the refusal of single use plastics. However, it is great to know that there is a safe and natural solution to the plastics that are already polluting our waters.
Though these natural solutions are a great step forward, it is our responsibility to protect our planet and the life on it from further environmental and ecological damage.
Right now, however, this once mysterious strain of bacteria really is nature’s little miracle.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about why we should be worried about the leak in the bottom of the ocean.