Biodegradation of Polythenes by Bacteria Isolated from Soil

Polythene plays an important role in packaging of goods, food material, medicine and garbage bags etc but its degradation is becoming a great threat and vital cause of environmental pollution. There are various polythene degradation methods available but the eco-friendly and acceptable method is by using microbes. The present study deals with the isolation, identification, screening and degradation of pretreated polythene by microorganisms obtained from soil. A total of 15 bacteria were recovered from different areas. Further Screening of polythene degrading microorganism was done by zone of clearance method out of 15 bacteria only 3 showed the positive results and identified to be Staphylococcus sp (P1A), Pseudomonas sp. (P1B), and Bacillus sp. (P1C). A total of three isolates P1A, P1B, PIC and one Consortium PID(P1A+P1B+P1C) were used for degradation of 10 and 40 micron polythene. Bacillus sp. (PIC) showed 42.5% followed by Staphylococcus sp. (P1A) 20% Pseudomonas sp. (P1B) 7.5 % and consortium (PID) 5% degradation by weight loss in 40 days. in 40 micron polythene. We can conclude that Bacillus sp may act as solution for the problem caused by polythene in nature. Hence from this study it can be speculated that microbes has enough potential to degrade plastic with due course of time.