2021/11/01 by I. B. Kotova, Irina Kotova, Yu. V. Taktarova +10 · 1 citation
Environmental Science · Materials Science · #Microplastics and Plastic Pollution #Recycling and Waste Management Techniques #biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties
paper · pdf · doi:10.1134/s0026261721060084
crossref issued 2021/11/01 · crossref published 2021/11/01 · crossref published-print 2021/11/01 · openalex publication_date 2021/11/01 · crossref published-online 2021/12/08 · crossref created 2021/12/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref deposited 2026/03/29 · crossref indexed 2026/07/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract — The growing worldwide production of synthetic plastics leads to increased amounts of plastic pollution. Even though microbial degradation of plastics is known to be a very slow process, this capacity has been found in many bacteria, including invertebrate symbionts, and microscopic fungi. Research in this field has been mostly focused on microbial degradation of polyethylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Quite an arsenal of different methods is available today for detecting processes of plastic degradation and measuring their rates. Given the lack of generally accepted protocols, it is difficult to compare results presented by different authors. PET degradation by recombinant hydrolases from thermophilic actinobacteria happens to be the most efficient among the currently known plastic degradation processes. Various approaches to accelerating microbial plastic degradation are also discussed.