Accepted Article Bio-degradation of polyethylene via complete solubilisation by the action of Pseudomonas fluorescens, bio-surfactant produced by Bacillus licheniformis and anionic surfactant Shritama Mukherjee a , Uttam RoyChaudhuri b , Patit P. Kundu a,c * a Advanced Polymer Laboratory, Department of Polymer Science and Technology, University of Calcutta, 92 APC Road, Kolkata - 700009, West Bengal, India. Email ID: ppk923@yahoo.com.; ppkfch@iitr.ac.in, b Department of Chemical Technology, University of Calcutta, 92 APC Road, Kolkata - 700009, West Bengal, India. c Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667, India * Corresponding author Abstract: Background: Long hydrocarbon (~CH2) chain, absence of polar bonds and highly hydrophobic nature of polyethylene, makes polyethylene one of most difficult environmental pollutants to degrade. In the present study, commercially available polyethylenes were treated with bio-surfactant produced by Bacillus licheniformis, anionic surfactant and bacterially treated with Pseudomonas fluorescens in a different combination to achieve higher biodegradation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi: 10.1002/jctb.5489