Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(7): 2611-2618 2611 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.907.308 Isolation and Screening of Plastic Degrading Bacteria from Dumping Sites of Solid Waste Kavita Rana * and Neerja Rana Department of Basic Sciences, College of Forestry, University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan 173230, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Under the natural condition degradable or non-degradable organic materials are considered as the major environmental problem, e.g. plastics. The accumulation of these plastic wastes created serious threat to environment and wildlife. The environmental concerns include air, water and soil pollution. The dispersal of urban and industrial wastes contaminates the soil. The soil contaminations are mainly occurring by human activities. Environmental pollution is caused by synthetic polymers, such as wastes of plastic and water soluble synthetic polymers in wastewater (Shrestha et al., 2019). The proliferation rate of plastic materials is very fast, and the environment is affected by such wastes throughout the world. Plastic waste in the form of litter enters running water in different ways according to nature and ultimately contaminates the environment. Plastic waste causes eight intricate problems in the environment: (1) plastic trash pollutes, (2) plastic entangles marine life, (3) ingestion of plastic items, (4) biodegradation of petroleum-based plastic polymers is time- consuming, (5) broken plastic and its pellets disturb the Food web, (6) interference with sediment inhabitants, (7) litter destroying the International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 7 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Soil samples were collected from various dumping sites of five (5) districts i.e. Solan, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Mandi and Kangra of Himachal Pradesh. The soil samples were used for isolation of plastic degrading microorganism on M9 media enriched with Polyethylene glycol as sole carbon source. Twenty three (23) isolates have been isolated using two concentrations of Polyethylene glycol (PEG) i.e. 0.5 percent and 1 percent. The incubated plates further treated with Coomassies blue Rg-250 dye to observe the zone of clearance. Out of 23 isolates on the basis of zone of clearance two (2) isolates were selected as elite plastic degraders viz., PDBH1 and PDBM 2 for further investigation. Keywords Plastic degrading bacteria, Dumping sites, Solid waste Accepted: 22 June 2020 Available Online: 10 July 2020 Article Info