Solution to plastics

One of the biggest problems the world is facing now is degradation of plastics. In the last few decades scientists have been working on finding ways to degrade plastics. Plastics are not just hurdles on land but also in water. Isnt it shocking to know that plastics accumulate as much in the sea as they do on land? The obvious way one would think is people travelling over the sea dumping plastics. But there are other ways plastics enter the sea. Artificial plastics like nylons are often used to make fihsing nets and gears. Pieces of fishing gears that get deposited in the sea have been found to kill animals that eat it. These plastics are harder to degrade than those on land.

I know these are scary but scietists do see some light at the end of the tunnel. There are many microbes like bacteria and fungi that have been found to degrade plastics. This is one application of 'Bioremediation' where biological molecules are used to 'clean' our Earth. Another example of Bioremediation is the use of bacteria to 'clean up' oil spills in sea. The natural molecules that degrade plastics are the enzymes produced by many species of fungi called laccases. These enzymes are not new to the scientific community. They havealready been exploited in many industries like textile, wine making, etc.

But its nothing great to rejoice yet. The rate of degradation of plastics by microbes is much lesser than the rate of accumulation of plastics on this precious Earth. So lets all get together to clean this Earth up and help the microbes that help us!