ARCHITECTURE
IDEAS
CABINS
Wild Woodz 
CATEGORIES
POPULAR
Nature Animals
People Craft
Science Design
Jump to WildWoodz
Glass tabletops are the best option for renewing existing coffee tables while round tabletops and rectangle-glass-tabletops are perfect for decorating ...
Modern Coffee Table Styles with Table Tops
Glass tabletops are the best option for renewing existing coffee tables while round tabletops and rectangle-glass-tabletops are perfect for decorating ...
Plexiglass is a great alternative to glass. Let's explore the applications in which plexiglass is preferred over ordinary glass.
Top 5 Situations When Application of Plexiglass is Preferred over Glass
Plexiglass is a great alternative to glass. Let's explore the applications in which plexiglass is preferred over ordinary glass.
Interior designs for homes and other spaces are changing faster than one can imagine. Sometimes, it gets too difficult to ...
Difference Between wooden base cabinets & glass cabinets (New Concept Glass Cabinets Design)
Interior designs for homes and other spaces are changing faster than one can imagine. Sometimes, it gets too difficult to ...
Scandinavian design is normally compared to mid-century modern design. While they are known to borrow details from each other, color ...
DIY Nordic wood designs
Scandinavian design is normally compared to mid-century modern design. While they are known to borrow details from each other, color ...
For the love of woodz, craft and nature.
 
Share
Plastic-Eating Bacteria Could Solve The Problem Of Plastic Pollution
In Science by Anja, June 23, 2016

Plastic consists of so-called polymers, or large chains of repeating molecules and untill recently, it was thought to be resistant to all known species of bacteria due to its chemical structure. The size of molecules is far greater than the one of an individual bacterium, which makes it impossible for the microbes to metabolize plastic.

However, researchers have recently detected a bacterium that can actually consume plastic, in particular, polyethylene terephthalate or PET, one of the most popular types of plastic that is widely used in bottles, food packaging and clothing. This new species of bacteria was called Ideonella sakaiensis, after the Japanese city of Sakai where it was found.

A group of Japanese researchers looked through numerous debris fields with PET pollution and eventually discovered a colony of bacteria growing on plastic waste and using it as a food source.

Plastic-eating bacteria could solve the problem of plastic pollution

“Plastic-eating bacteria could solve the problem of growing pollution” by epSos.de is licensed under CC BY 2.0

“It’s the most unique thing. This bacterium can degrade PET and then make their body from PET,” Shosuke Yoshida, a microbiologist at Kyoto University and lead author of the study, told NPR.

What makes this bacteria different from other bacteria is that it has two enzymes capable of breaking the molecular bonds in the plastic polymer so that the bacterium can then metabolize the pieces and convert them into water and carbon dioxide. Although it sound like a perfect sollution to fight against plastic waste, it is not that easy.

The problem is that Ideonella sakaiensis eats too slowly

For the purpose of the study, which was published in the journal Science, Yoshida and his team conducted an experiment in which the isolated bacterium almost completely degraded a plastic film in around six weeks.

Plastic-eating bacteria could solve the problem of plastic pollution

“Plastic bottles floating on the river” by Emilian Robert Vicol is licensed under CC BY 2.0

It seems that nature itself is working on finding a way to neutralize the pollution caused by human activity and is evolving microorganisms capable of that. Scientists believe that such rapid evolution takes place thanks to the incredible ability of microbes to adapt to the surrounding conditions. As Enzo Palombo, a professor of microbiology at Swinburne University, told The Guardian, “If you put a bacteria in a situation where they’ve only got one food source to consume, over time they will adapt to do that.”

Luckily, Ideonella sakaiensis is not the first living organism that was found to feed with plastic. In 2014, a group of researchers detected a plastic-eating species of fungi in the rainforest of Ecuador.

Whether scientists will ever use Ideonella sakaiensis to neutralize the existing plastic pollution or not, it is obvious that Mother Nature is actually starting to fight back against all this harm we have done and are still doing to it.

H/T to themindunleashed

Reshare our content with appropriate credit:
- via Woodz.co (must include a link to the article)
- if it exists, give h/t (specified at the end of our articles)

Leave a Reply

So, what do you think?

avatar
wpdiscuz_captcharefresh
avatar
wpdiscuz_captcharefresh
  Subscribe  
Notify of
Latest
Sustainability, respect for the mountains and direct contact with nature are the principles that have guided all design choices. For ...
9 Dec 2021
Hotel Zallinger
Glass tabletops are the best option for renewing existing coffee tables while round tabletops and rectangle-glass-tabletops are perfect for decorating ...
27 May 2021
Modern Coffee Table Styles with Table Tops
With great views of the golf course and the magnificent trees in the environment. The design of the project follows ...
6 May 2021
GP House
Plexiglass is a great alternative to glass. Let's explore the applications in which plexiglass is preferred over ordinary glass.
12 Apr 2021
Top 5 Situations When Application of Plexiglass is Preferred over Glass
The steep forested hillsides around the Hardangerfjord above Odda is the location of two Woodnest treehouses. The architecture is a ...
3 Feb 2021
Woodnest Cabin – Treehouse
RELATED POSTS
Did you know that worldwide maps are modified and are not delineated in the right proportions?
World Map Like It Should Be
Sunflower plants follows the Sun from east to west during the day and then reorient back to the east each ...
Why Sunflowers Track the Sun Across the Sky?
Highway underpasses might not seem ideal places to have a garden but the Franco-Brazilian firm Triptyque Architecture has unveiled an ...
Hanging Highway Garden In São Paulo Would Filter 20% Of Car Emissions
Architecture Wild Woodz About Us
Ideas Terms & Privacy
Cabins Contact
For the love of wood, craft and nature.
Copyright © 2015-2023 Woodz. All Rights Reserved.