{"id":74455,"date":"2023-01-26T13:29:37","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T12:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/?p=74455"},"modified":"2023-01-26T12:33:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T11:33:23","slug":"bacterium-plastic-nioz-laboratory-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/packaging-journal.de\/en\/bakterium-kunststoff-nioz-laborversuch\/","title":{"rendered":"Bacterium eats plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A laboratory experiment at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research has shown that the bacterium Rhodococcus ruber eats and digests plastic. The bacterium could be part of the solution for dealing with plastic in the world's oceans.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Based on a model study with plastic in artificial seawater in the laboratory, doctoral student Maaike Goudriaan calculated that bacteria can cause about one per cent of the plastic supplied per year in CO2<\/sub> and other harmless substances<\/strong>. \u201eBut,\u201c emphasises Goudriaan, \u201ethat is certainly No solution to the problem of plastic soup in our oceans<\/strong>. But it's another part of the answer to the question of where all the \u201amissing plastic\u2018 in the oceans has gone.\u201c<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Goudriaan had a special plastic containing a specific form of carbon (13C) produced especially for these experiments. When she fed this plastic to bacteria in a bottle of simulated seawater after pre-treatment with \u201esunlight\u201c - under a UV lamp - she saw that these bacteria were able to grow. special version of carbon as CO2<\/sub> appeared above the water<\/strong>. \u201eThe treatment with UV light was necessary because we already know that sunlight partially breaks down plastic into bite-sized pieces for bacteria,\u201c explains the researcher.<\/p>

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\u201eThis is the first time that we have demonstrated in this way that Bacteria actually convert plastic into CO2<\/sub> and other molecules<\/strong>\u201e, explains Goudriaan. It was already known that the bacterium Rhodococcus ruber can form a so-called biofilm on plastic in nature. It was also possible to measure that Plastic disappears under this biofilm<\/strong>. \u201eBut now we have really shown that the bacteria actually digest the plastic.\u201c<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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When Goudriaan analyses the entire degradation of plastic in CO2<\/sub> she estimates that the bacteria can break down around one per cent of the available plastic per year.<\/p>