Environment

Plastic Pollution

Scientists say they have found evidence that microbes in the soil and sea are evolving to eat plastic.

Scientists at Sweden’s Chalmers University say the evolution is occurring most rapidly in places containing the most plastic pollution. The global proliferation of plastic over the past 70 years has given the microbes enough time to evolve and to produce enzymes to degrade different plastics. “Currently, very little is known about these plastic-degrading enzymes, and we did not expect to find such a large number of them across so many different microbes and environmental habitats,” said systems biologist Aleksej Zelezniak.

He added that further research could potentially create new, powerful microbial enzymes designed to eat specific types of plastic.

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