Indian Journal of Microbiology Research 2022;9(1):9–13 Content available at: https://www.ipinnovative.com/open-access-journals Indian Journal of Microbiology Research Journal homepage: https://www.ijmronline.org/ Review Article Degradation of synthetic polymers: Microbial approach Risav Banerjee 1, *, Trisha Bhattacharya 1 1 Dept. of Genetics, Indian Academy Degree College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 31-12-2021 Accepted 13-01-2022 Available online 11-04-2022 Keywords: Microbial degradation Biodegradation Microbial approach ABSTRACT A synthetic polymer is a plastic, which is having wide applications in our day-to-day life. The packaging industries, agriculture, cosmetics, etc. Plastics are not easily degradable, it takes 1000 years to degrade a plastic or even more than that. The pollution caused by plastic is not only because of the waste disposal method but it is also because it releases carbon dioxide and dioxins while burning. Plastics are considered a threat to the environment as they are not easily degradable. Our review is based on the microbial approach for plastic degradation. The waste management method being used for plastic disposal is not effective enough. Nowadays biodegradable polymers are also being used as they are more easily degradable compared to synthetic polymers. The bacteria and fungi degrade most of the organic and inorganic components like starch, lignin, cellulose, and hemicelluloses. This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. For reprints contact: reprint@ipinnovative.com 1. Introduction Plastic is a synthetic polymer that is abundantly found in every corner of the world. It is used almost in every sector for packaging, textiles, electrical gadgets, automotive, furniture to medical healthcare. Now the worldwide production of plastic has reached 367million tonnes, the industry produces approximately 150kilograms of polymers per person annually in the United States, with the increase of production in the plastic it has become an environmental hazard, impacting on health and threatening wildlife and even marine life. 1 In the environment, we can find natural polymers, like cellulose. Latex was first chemically modified in 19 th century to form celluloid and vulcanized rubber. Bakelite the first synthetic polymer was produced in 1907 and rayon fiber was the first semisynthetic fiber developed by cellulose. 2 The polymers are resistant to chemicals, insulators of electricity, and heat. Resin is * Corresponding author. E-mail address: banerjeerisav@gmail.com (R. Banerjee). the raw material for the production of plastic products. Polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are the most commonly used resins, they are used in packaging. 3 Plastic takes years to decompose, the chemicals present in the plastic-like lead, mercury, and cadmium are carcinogens, when it comes into direct contact with humans it can cause cancer, immunological problems, and even congenital disabilities. The plastic in marine impacts the ingestion, suffocation, entanglement, and death of hundreds of species. 4 Many plastics are non-biodegradable but few plastics are biodegradable which can be decomposed by the action of the microorganisms. In 2016 the Japanese scientists had discovered a bacterium that can break down the polyethylene terephthalate plastic, the bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis degrades polyethylene terephthalate by the two enzymes PETase and MHETase produce by the bacteria, the PETase breakdowns the polyester polymer by which polyethylene terephthalate is constructed into smaller pieces, during the process polyethylene terephthalate is https://doi.org/10.18231/j.ijmr.2022.002 2394-546X/© 2022 Innovative Publication, All rights reserved. 9