American-Eurasian J. Agric. & Environ. Sci., 16 (8): 1437-1440, 2016
ISSN 1818-6769
© IDOSI Publications, 2016
DOI: 10.5829/idosi.aejaes.2016.16.8.12981
Corresponding Author: Fasiha Saeed, Jinnah University for Women 5C, Nazimabad, Karachi, Pakistan.
Cell: +92-333-3782628.
1437
Association of Microbes with Plastic Degradation & its Thermal
Resistance from the Environment of Karachi
Fasiha Saeed, Saleha Aslam, Farkhanda Afaque,
1 1 1
S. Ghufrana Nadeem and Qurat-ul-Ain Fatima
2 1
Department Of Microbiology, Jinnah University for Women, Karachi-74600, Pakistan
1
Medical Mycology Research And Reference Laboratory,
2
Department of Microbiology, Jinnah University for Women, Karachi -74600, Pakistan
Abstract: Plastic has been used in various applications in daily routine human life. It is durable and its
durability is a cause of environmental pollution so it’s time for the development of those materials that do not
burden the environment. There are various methods used for the removal of plastic wastes but all of these have
some side effects and costly so there is a need to devise a cheap method with sustainable and environment
friendly technologies. Pakistan is the developing country and there is lot of issues to be resolved including the
environmental pollution. In this connection our study emphasized on the isolation of plastic degrading
microbes from environmental plastic of Karachi with reference to the relative resistance towards temperature
at 40, 50 and 60 °C was assayed. 80 old garbage plastic were analyzed numerous plastic degrading bacteria were
isolated including Pseudomonas which was about 18.75%. It was observed that all of these (100%) isolates
showed resistance at the temperature ranging from 40-50 °C, 57.5% species were resistant at 50-60°C and 53.42%
isolates were resistant at 60°C. This conductive study implies great importance in the field of environmental
biotechnology for the improvement of environment especially in developing countries because of its cost
affectivity towards the elimination of hazardous compounds.
Key words: Environmental Pollution Biodegrading bacteria Hazardous compounds Plastic Sustainable
technologies
INTRODUCTION Plastic is a broad name given to many polymers [5]
Most beneficial synthetic manmade substances chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs),
obtained from resources of fossil fuel, is plastic. Plastic nonylphenol (NP), organic pesticides, including
are cheap, light weight, unbreakable and extremely durable dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), polycyclic
that’s why widely used for many applications including aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), poly brominated diphenyl
food, clothing, shelter, transportation e.t.c. from the past ethers (PBDEs) and bis phenol A (BPA) are present in
thirty years [1]. Synthetic plastic are used worldwide plastic particle [6-8]. Polyethylene can be degraded by
approximately 30%. In Pakistan the growth rate of plastic different molecular mechanism including the chemical
industry is 12% per annum and approximately 600-700 degradation, photo degradation and biological
plastic processing units are present in all over the country degradation [9].
[2]. Annually large number of polluting material including At least 75 different genera of bacteria accumulate
hydrocarbons and heavy metals are dumped into the Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) [P(3HB)] as an intracellular
environment [3]. The first line of sink for petroleum granule, provided carbon and energy resources under
product pollutants are soil and water and these areas are growth limiting conditions (1). Polyhydroxyalkanoates
in danger. Land become infertile due to oil spills and gets are considered to be biodegradable in the environment
damaged because of suffocation and toxicity of crude oil and posses thermoplastic behavior. In accordance
[4]. with the substrate, some bacteria’s are able to give yield
for example high levels of organic pollutants, toxic