PLASTIC DEGRADING BACTERIA
As you know , plastic is filling up the oceans by human’s atrocious acts , acting as a blockage to many marine mammals as it covers the seas and makes it impossible for sunlight to pass through .
WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT ?! PLASTIC CAN BE DEGRADED , ISN’T IT ?
Yes , plastic can be degraded , but takes thousands of years to get degraded . So , during degradation , many animals come up and eat the plastic thinking it’s food , hence harming their health . Everyday , millions of plastic bags and plastic materials are thrown into the seas . So , what those tiny bags do is that first they create a layer in the sea water which blocks sunlight from entering and then , since there is minimal sunlight , less transfer of gases takes place and the animals can’t breathe and ultimately die . The same with plants too ! . Due to insufficient sunlight , they cannot grow and hence die ! So plastic needs to be degraded easily . Also , 19 billion pounds of plastic is seen in the oceans every year.
WHO IS IT? I WANT TO GIVE IT A NOBEL PRIZE !
Well , it’s Ideonella sakaiensis . Weird name , isn’t it ?! But totally deservant of an honor higher above of a nobel prize . Scientists from Japan took 5 years to find that bacteria ! In the plastic waste , they discovered bacteria which was actually eating plastic ! But , it can eat only one type of plastic known as PET (Polyethelene Terephthalate) .
How does it do that !
This organism takes about 6 weeks to eat through a commonly found plastic bottle . But since it takes a lot of time to degrade plastic , we should take precautions too ! Since this bacteria alone cannot solve it all ! Stop the usage of plastic . Even though scientist are discovering a way to create something capable of degrading plastic faster , we must do our best to stop the influence of plastic on the human world .
HENCE, IDEONELLA SAKAIENSIS IS TOTALLY AN EARTH SAVIOUR!!!
