The seriousness of the current situation is best conveyed by the garbage patches in the oceans (the Great Pacific Garbage Patch). It can help to develop new technologies for recycling plastic waste and improve the current situation a little the new kind bacteria that feed on plastics.

The discovery was made by Japanese researchers.

According to them, the microorganism is interesting primarily because of its ability to recycle a common type of plastic known as PET (polyethylene terephthalate plastics). Directly myself digestive process plasticity in the bacterium occurs slowly, so the short-term prospects for the discovery are still quite vague, but further studies of the bacterium, which, by the way, is called Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6, may lead to the emergence of new safe ways plastic recycling.

The type of plastic that is a favorite delicacy of Ideonella sakaiensis, polyethylene terephthalate, is characterized by its lightness, strength and ability to retain liquid. This material is very often used for the manufacture of containers for liquid products - various containers and bottles. Note that in 2013 alone, about 56 million tons of PET plastic were produced worldwide, of which only half was recycled.

The properties that make PET such an attractive material for various companies - strength and moisture resistance - also pose a huge threat to the environment. This material has a very long half-life and therefore accumulates in the form of landfills on land and in the ocean.

It is estimated that it takes around 450 years for a typical plastic bottle to fully decompose, and while some plastics break down faster in the ocean, they release harmful chemicals as they break down. chemical substances, which further aggravates the environmental situation.

A new type of plastic-eating bacteria was discovered by sifting 250 PET samples collected from plastic recycling plants. This is stated in an article about the research results published in the journal Science. Investigators looked for evidence of material decay among the samples and eventually discovered I. sakaiensis.

Bacteria of this species secrete two enzymes that break down this compound into environmentally friendly substances - terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. True, this does not happen very quickly. The study said it took bacteria six weeks to completely digest a small piece of low-quality polyethylene terephthalate film. That is, products made from higher quality PET will take even longer to break down.

It is possible that in the future scientists will find a way to speed up this process. In a subsequent article published in the same Science, bioengineering professor Uwe Bornscheuer writes that scientists must find out the origins of these enzymes secreted by bacteria, or more precisely, whether they are a manifestation of evolution.

According to Bornscheuer, this type of plastic has only existed in nature for 70 years, and it is possible that enzymes have adapted to the new realities and learned to use it as a food source that provides a “survival advantage.” The scientist writes that evolution in such short time- this is very rare, although this has already happened before, and additional research may lead to the emergence of new ones effective ways fight against PET plastic.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Bornscheuer noted that, in theory, these bacteria could speed up the breakdown of plastic in landfills.

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MOSCOW, March 11 - RIA Novosti. Japanese molecular biologists have discovered an unusual bacterium that can “eat” lavsan and other types of plastic, and extracted from them the enzymes responsible for the decomposition of these polymers, according to an article published in the journal Science.

Every year, approximately 300 million tons of plastic waste end up in the Earth's landfills, most of which is not decomposed by soil microbes and remains almost untouched for tens or even hundreds of years. Many plastic particles end up in the waters of the world's oceans, where they enter the stomachs of fish and birds and often cause their death.

Kenji Miyamoto of Keio University in Yokohama, Japan, and his colleagues found a way to eliminate much of this trash heap by studying how different communities of bacteria react to the presence of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This thermoplastic, also known as lavsan, is used in the manufacture plastic bottles, clothing, film and other storage media. PET accounts for one-sixth of all plastic waste on Earth.

During the research, scientists made several trips to nature, where they were able to find and extract more than 250 fragments of plastic waste, some of which bore traces of partial decomposition. Biologists analyzed the genomes of bacteria that lived in the soil next to these plastic particles and tried to identify among them those that were able to feed on PET. To do this, microbial cultures were planted on thin polymer films.

Scientists were lucky - they discovered that the common soil bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis is able to live on a 100% “diet” of lavsan and decompose its molecules into water and carbon dioxide.

Scientists are interested in how this “plastic-eating” bacterium breaks down PET chains into single units and eats them. To answer this question, biologists analyzed the microbial DNA structure and found that only two enzymes are responsible for the destruction of plastic.

The first - the so-called PEPase - decomposes long polymer links into “bricks” of one molecule of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid even before the plastic enters the bacterium. The second enzyme, MHET hydrolase, decomposes these units into ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid, which are then used by the microbe in its life activity.

The process of plastic decomposition proceeds quite slowly - the bacteria “finished” the film that the scientists offered them only six weeks after the start of the experiment. But given that such plastic waste “lives” in landfills for about 70-100 years, adding colonies of Ideonella sakaiensis to garbage heaps can significantly speed up its decomposition. In addition, scientists suggest that synthetic versions of enzymes can be used to recycle and destroy plastic.

Sometimes surprising things are discovered in old popular science magazines. For me, such a pearl, found during lazy “surfing” through the “Science and Life” files of the 70s, was the story “Mutant-59”. Here it is, in that very version, in the Moshkov library - and I highly recommend it. In order not to spoil the fun, the plot is brief: the action is built around a microorganism bred by scientists that can devour all types of plastic. He breaks free and the world stands on the brink of a cataclysm comparable to a nuclear one...

Written at the end of the 60s, this story was one of the first attempts to probe our dependence on plastics - already strong then. But the authors of “Mutant” could not even imagine how much stronger she would become over the next forty years! Not only has the use of plastics increased almost twentyfold (today more than 300 million tons are produced annually), but the maximum has not yet been reached and in the next twenty years we are expected to double consumption.

Plastic is an artificial material “grown” on hydrocarbons, which stops water well and is weakly susceptible to aggressive factors of the earth’s environment. This is what explains its popularity. But every stick has two ends: since nothing like this has existed before, nature has no means to safely destroy plastic waste - which accumulates in proportion to the increase in consumption. The garbage could have accumulated more slowly, but this is an unfortunate fact! - Most plastic products are disposable.

Of course, people themselves can and should help nature, but... Estimates vary, however, in general, it can be argued that less than a third of plastic products are recycled. The rest ends up, at best, in organized landfills, and at worst, it scatters across continents and flows into the ocean, where the plastic begins a second life.

Since there are no microorganisms capable of decomposing plastic, under the influence of light, temperature, mechanical factors, and sluggish chemical reactions, the garbage breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. This process even for a banal bottle drinking water, for example, takes almost five hundred years - and does not occur without consequences for living beings. Part of all this settles and forms unique “fossils” mixed with plastics (which is why archaeologists are already calling our century the Age of Plastic), but to a large extent it is also absorbed in different forms life, from birds and large mammals down to the smallest zooplankton.

Those, of course, also do not understand what they are faced with: they did not have time to adapt in just a hundred years (the history dates back to celluloid, which appeared in 1855). They mistake colored pieces for food, get sick and die (particles clog the digestive tract, choke, poison), and become food themselves. Zooplankton, for example, form the base of the marine food pyramid, so the plastic consumed by microscopic crustaceans ends up in our stomachs.

Everything could be different if, say, there was a bacterium in nature that could live and survive on a diet of plastic. However, until recently this remained a fantasy. Yes, some forms of mold are known, yes, some experiments were conducted with encouraging results on microbes, but that was all. And then the other day the Japanese found the necessary bacterium. Welcome to a bright future!

Having collected samples of stale plastic waste, the Japanese studied it in search of signs of accelerated decomposition. And in this simple way they made their epochal discovery. The bacterium, named Ideonella sakaiensis, appears to be a naturally evolved species of the microorganism known to science. It produces chemicals (enzymes) that decompose one type of plastic into intermediate compounds, which it then consumes.

Compared to its fantastic ancestor, I.s. looks harmless. Firstly, it specializes only in PET plastic (known in our country as lavsan), which, although very popular (primarily as a raw material for food and water packaging), accounts for only a fifth of global plastic production. Secondly, it takes weeks to eat a thin layer from the surface of a plastic product, and it is better to prepare the plastic (thermal treatment) to make it mechanically fragile.

But trouble has begun! Ideonella sakaiensis is living evidence that nature has begun to adapt to the plastic age. And there is good hope that genetic engineers will help her do this faster: speed up the digestion process, set her on other plastics.

This is where we return to the story from forty years ago. What the authors precisely noticed back then was our dependence on plastics. Plastic-digesting bacteria are extremely valuable in combating plastic waste - but the problem is sorting out what's trash and what's not. useful to people things, a mutant certainly won't. “Rotting” of drinking water containers and food packaging is just the beginning. When Nature or engineers teach bacteria to eat other plastics - which, judging by the comments of scientists on the Japanese work, seems possible - we will have a really hard time.

Take a look around, right now, without leaving your workplace. Consider our dependence on plastic! “Magic” immunity to rot, rust, temperature, and humidity made it the most popular construction material of the third millennium. Plastic is tables and chairs, housings and insulation of electronic devices, data storage media and packaging, plastic everywhere, plastic in everything! Life has found a way - and we should be happy, but this will probably make our life more difficult...

MOSCOW, March 11 - RIA Novosti. Japanese molecular biologists have discovered an unusual bacterium that can “eat” lavsan and other types of plastic, and extracted from them the enzymes responsible for the decomposition of these polymers, according to an article published in the journal Science.

Every year, approximately 300 million tons of plastic waste end up in the Earth's landfills, most of which is not decomposed by soil microbes and remains almost untouched for tens or even hundreds of years. Many plastic particles end up in the waters of the world's oceans, where they enter the stomachs of fish and birds and often cause their death.

Kenji Miyamoto of Keio University in Yokohama, Japan, and his colleagues found a way to eliminate much of this trash heap by studying how different communities of bacteria react to the presence of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). This thermoplastic, also known as lavsan, is used in the manufacture of plastic bottles, clothing, film and other storage media. PET accounts for one-sixth of all plastic waste on Earth.

During the research, scientists made several trips to nature, where they were able to find and extract more than 250 fragments of plastic waste, some of which bore traces of partial decomposition. Biologists analyzed the genomes of bacteria that lived in the soil next to these plastic particles and tried to identify among them those that were able to feed on PET. To do this, microbial cultures were planted on thin polymer films.

Scientists were lucky - they discovered that the common soil bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis is able to live on a 100% “diet” of lavsan and decompose its molecules into water and carbon dioxide.

Scientists are interested in how this “plastic-eating” bacterium breaks down PET chains into single units and eats them. To answer this question, biologists analyzed the microbial DNA structure and found that only two enzymes are responsible for the destruction of plastic.

The first - the so-called PEPase - decomposes long polymer links into “bricks” of one molecule of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid even before the plastic enters the bacterium. The second enzyme, MHET hydrolase, decomposes these units into ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid, which are then used by the microbe in its life activity.

The process of plastic decomposition proceeds quite slowly - the bacteria “finished” the film that the scientists offered them only six weeks after the start of the experiment. But given that such plastic waste “lives” in landfills for about 70-100 years, adding colonies of Ideonella sakaiensis to garbage heaps can significantly speed up its decomposition. In addition, scientists suggest that synthetic versions of enzymes can be used to recycle and destroy plastic.

There is a lot of plastic waste entering the ocean, which is a kind of grim marker of the Anthropocene era. In the Quiet and Atlantic Oceans For a long time, there have been floating dumps of this garbage, which are not inferior in size to some countries, and more recently they have begun to appear in the Arctic. In addition, some uninhabited islands are buried under tons of plastic.

Can bacteria eat plastic?

Despite this dire situation, scientists have concluded that the amount of plastic we throw away every year should be a hundred times greater than that floating in the ocean. This situation has several possible explanations, but in a new study, scientists have concluded that bacteria living in the ocean may be breaking down plastic waste.

This idea may seem rather strange, but just last year, researchers discovered that a newly discovered species of bacteria can break down the molecular bonds of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), one of the most common forms of plastic. These bacteria literally use it as a food source.

Typically, it takes 450 years for this type of plastic to completely degrade in the environment. But bacteria cope with it in just six weeks. It was this information that led a team of researchers from the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona to believe that we have these microscopic organisms largely to thank for the absence of plastic in the oceans.

Good news?

At first glance, the bacteria news seems good because it will help reduce the amount of plastic waste that accumulates in the ocean. Now a huge amount of this garbage ends up in the bodies of marine animals, which leads to their death.

However, try to imagine what would happen if we could continue to throw plastic into the oceans without any consequences. This will likely be a green light for manufacturers. If these bacteria can spread around the globe, they will reduce negative impact person per environment, and hardly anyone would argue that this is a bad idea.

Possible Explanations

Although, of course, we shouldn't rely too much on these bacteria. It is quite possible that the waste that scientists missed is immersed in water and stored in seabed. This means they could one day resurface, although the consequences of such an event are difficult to predict.

Using mathematical modeling, the scientists concluded that other geological processes or miscalculation could also explain the discrepancy between the global rate of plastic production and its presence in the sea.

In any case, humanity currently continues to dump huge amounts of plastic into the oceans. Although a small amount is recycled, this is unlikely to change until manufacturers agree to replace it with bioplastic, which degrades quickly in any environment once it is no longer needed.