Bioaugmentation for Reducing Plastic Pollution

Plastics, which are simply defined as synthetic or semi-synthetic polymers, have proven to be extremely useful to humans in a variety of ways, ranging from our toothbrushes to water bottles and in the packaging of various materials. However, it has inflicted massive damage upon the environment and all its life forms, mainly due to its non-biodegradable nature. Bioaugmentation offers a solution to this problem. It aims to utilise microbes for breaking down the pollutants into less toxic or non- toxic forms. This technique may be carried out either by using native microbial populations or microbes from an external environment. From their field study, Naveen Mohan and R. Usha concluded that the plastic degrading capacity of exogenous microbial strains is higher as compared to the indigenous ones and that exogenous microbes use plastic as their only carbon source. Many species of bacteria and fungi have also been shown to degrade different kinds of plastic through enzyme secretion, with a particular emphasis being given on the bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis in this chapter, which secretes PETase enzyme. The process of modification of E. coli bacteria to manufacture PETase enzymes have also been discussed. Finally, some benefits and drawbacks of bioaugmentation have also been explained.