Plastic waste washed up on the beaches of Haiti.
Credit: Coastalcare
A durable plastic called PET is considered a major environmental hazard because it’s highly resistant to breakdown. But researchers have found a potential new match for this hardy plastic: a newly discovered microbe that is astonishingly good at eating it.
An estimated 342 million tons of plastic are produced annually worldwide, and currently, only about 14 percent is collected for recycling, according to the World Economic Forum.
Most plastic degrades extraordinarily slowly, but PET — short for polyethylene terephthalate — is especially durable, and about 61 million tons of the colorless plastic was produced worldwide in 2013 alone, according to the researchers. [In Photos: World’s Most Polluted Places
Previously, the only species found to break down PET were rare fungi. Now, scientists in Japan have discovered bacteria that can biodegrade this hardy plastic.
“The […]
