Plastic Pollution in Oceans Offset by Bacteria
Where does the ‘missing plastic’ in our oceans go? Bacteria eat some of it, scientists have found. Around 12 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every single year. But sampling surveys only ever detect about one per cent of this deluge.
Scientists at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) think they’ve found a ‘jigsaw piece’ of this puzzle: bacteria are devouring it. When plastic enters the ocean, sunlight degrades it into “bite sized chunks”. It is then devoured by the bug bacterium Rhodococcus ruber, which digests it and excretes carbon dioxide. This is the first time scientists have proven in this way that bacteria actually digest plastic into CO2 and other molecules.
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