Plastik Mesra Alam
Researchers find plastic-eating microbe that can solve our ocean’s plastic problem
(Natural News) Even as humans keep on
filling the planet with plastic pollutants, the bountiful oceans reveal a means
by which the problem can be resolved. An Israeli research team announced that
they successfully created
a biodegradable plastic from a common seaweed. Their new bioplastic
could be broken down by bacteria that feed on the seaweed in the wild.
Switching
from conventional plastics to this biodegradable equivalent could help reduce
the amount of trash that ends up in the sea in the long run. And in
addition to already having a naturally occurring microorganism that could break
it down, the new biopolymer was not made from land-based plants.
“Plastic
from fossil sources is one of the most polluting factors in the oceans,”
explained Dr. Alexander Goldberg of the Tel Aviv University (TAU)
in a press release. “We have proved it is possible to produce bioplastic
completely based on marine resources in a process that is friendly both to the
environment and to its residents.”
A
professor at the university’s school of environmental and earth
sciences, Goldberg and fellow TAU researcher Michael Gozin pooled their
efforts to create the seaweed-based bioplastic. They published the details of
their experiment in the scientific journal Bioresource Technology. (Related: Study
finds man-made pollution is transforming ‘untouched’ areas of the earth.)
Bioplastic production requires fresh water
Conventional plastics
are a serious threat to the ecosystems of the oceans. Experts warned that if
humans continued to manufacture these petroleum-based products at the
expected rates, there will be more plastics in the oceans in 2050 than
there are living fish.
Many
biodegradable
plastics have already been created to act as substitutes for plastics
made from fossil fuels. However, the plants used to provide the raw carbon
material for manufacturing these earlier bioplastics were all grown on land.
They also needed lots of fresh water.
There
are countries in the world that lack large swathes of fertile
land for growing large crops. Others do not have much in the way of fresh
water. And then there are countries like Israel, which has limited
amounts of both arable soil and irrigation water.
“There
are already factories that produce this type
of bioplastic in commercial quantities, but they use plants that require
agricultural land and fresh water,” said Golberg, who served as one of the
authors of the study. “The process we propose will enable countries with a
shortage of fresh water, such as Israel, China and India, to switch from
petroleum-derived plastics to biodegradable plastics.”
New bioplastic is made from seaweed instead of land plants
Goldberg
drew inspiration from his earlier efforts at developing sustainable
uses for seaweed. His laboratory has previously come up with ethanol biofuels,
proteins, and sugars that could be extracted from seaweed grown in farms.
He
and Gozin chose to use Ulva, a genus of seaweed that is also
known as “sea
lettuces.” These large algae grow in saltwater, so they could be
cultivated on a large scale without the need for land or irrigation water.
Ulva
is nutritious and consumed by numerous organisms. Humans, for instance, use sea
lettuce as an ingredient in salads and soups. But for the purpose of
the study, the most important consumer of Ulva is the microorganism Haloferax mediterranei. Testing
showed that the bacteria
could break down biopolymers made from Ulva.
The
TAU researchers are currently looking for the optimal combinations of
algae and bacteria for making new bioplastics with
different properties. Single-use plastic, for instance, would have different
chemical requirements from reusable plastic.
In turn, the plastic would need a different species of seaweed and the
appropriate bacteria that can break down its associated bioplastic.
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