Biodegradation of plastics waste using fungi: A review

Abstract

Plastics are synthetic polymers that are widely used in every field of life every day. Along with the increasing use of plastic, the amount of plastic waste produced and accumulated to environment will also increase. If the plastic waste is not handled properly, it will pollute the environment and threaten many living things including humans. Biodegradation is a promising method for dealing with plastic waste. This method includes many microbes including fungi such as Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. as its biodegradation agents. Some plastics degrading fungi produce many specific enzymes that catalyze the degradation of plastic polymer into simpler and smaller fragments including oligomer, dimer, and monomer through several steps including biodeterioration, depolymerization, assimilation, and mineralization. The fragmented plastic particles are absorbed and used by plastic degrading fungi as their energy and carbon sources. Biodegradation is the appropriate method to overcome the plastics pollution because this method has no side effects as the conventional methods.