In 2014, humans produced 311 million metric tons of plastic that equals about 3,500 of the

worlds largest aircraft carriers. In the environment, this plastic can take decades to break
down, and some have wondered if nature would be forced to adapt. A new study argues yes,
and on one of the smallest levels possible.
A plastic-eating species of bacteria has been uncovered by researchers in Japan. This microbe
munches on one type of plastic, polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. PET is one of the most
abundant forms of plastic on Earth and typically takes five to 10 years to naturally degrade.
This bacteria could break it down six weeks. This discovery, scientists say, could play a key
role in how we rid the world of this insidious plastic.
I was very surprised to find microorganisms that degrade PET, because so far, it has been
said that PET is a nonbiodegradable plastic, said microbiologist Kohei Oda of the Kyoto
Institute of Technology in Japan who co-authored the study published today in the journal
Science.
PET is everywhere. Youre probably most acquainted with its presence in water and soda
bottles. But it is also woven into carpet and clothing fibers like fleece. Salad containers,
plastic peanut butter jars, potato-chip bags, oven-ready meal trays and other food storage
containers use PET too. Thanks in part to its ubiquity, this plastichas the highest recycling rate
in the world. (Though, despite leading the pack, nearly half of the worlds PET still isnt
recycled.)
Oda and his colleagues didnt accidentally stumble on this plastic-gobbling bacteria, which
the researchers named Ideonella sakaiensis. Microorganisms often live on the frontlines of the
biodegradation battlefield. Germs in nature are renowned for secreting enzymes that break
down complex materials into simple compounds.
The surprise is that this bacterium can penetrate the surface of this plastic, which is
notoriously resistant to attacks by bacteria, and break apart its chemical bonds, said
biochemist Uwe Bornscheuer of the University of Greiswald in Germany, who wasnt
involved in this study. Thats why this new species is so unique.

Scanning electron microscopy image of the degraded surface of a piece of PET after 60 hours
with Ideonella sakaiensis. The inset shows the original smooth surface of the PET plastic.
Scale bar, 1 m. Photo courtesy of Yoshida et al., Science, (2016).
To find Ideonella sakaiensis, the researchers collected 250 samples of plastic debris from
sediment, soil, wastewater and sludge from a plastic bottle recycling site in Osaka, Japan. One
soil sample contained a distinct microbial community that could survive on PET as its sole
food source. Ideonella sakaiensis was the survivor.
Genetic and biochemical analysis revealed that the microbe produces two enzymes PETase
and MHETase that fully break down the plastic. The chemicals made by this bacterial
bioreactor are consumed as food, though one of the byproducts is a compound called
terephthalic acid. Bornscheuer wrote in an commentary about the study that if terephthalic

acid could be isolated from these bacteria and reused, then it could produce huge savings in
terms of the amount of oil needed to make the plastic in the first place.
Both Oda and Bornscheuer hope the bacterium or its two enzymes might one day be used as a
sustainable method of destroying plastic at recycling facilities like the one where the
discovery was made.
The bacterium was found at a recycling site. Why not use it there? Bornscheuer said, but
added the strain may need genetic modification to make the consumption process more
efficient.
Another question is where and when did Ideonella sakaiensis spring into existence and
develop this appetite for plastic. PET plastic has only existed for 70 years, a relatively short
time window for evolution. Prior to this study, the ability to biodegrade PET had been limited
to a couple species of soil fungus. The enzymes that allow Ideonella sakaiensis to penetrate
PETs surface in the first place remain unknown.
In principle, the bacteria could also work on microplastics in water, Bornscheuer said. One
recent estimate says the worlds oceans contain 15 to 51 trillion micro-sized particles of
plastic. However, Bornscheuer said that future studies must determine if the bacteria can
survive in the salty seas of the ocean, which can also fluctuate dramatically in temperature.
For sure, many scientists will have a close look into these options now that the paper is
published, Bornscheuer said.
Nature has begun to fight back against the vast piles of filth dumped into its soils, rivers and
oceans by evolving a plastic-eating bacteria the first known to science.
In a report published in the journal Science, a team of Japanese researchers described a
species of bacteria that can break the molecular bonds of one of the worlds most-used plastics
- polyethylene terephthalate, also known as PET or polyester.
The Japanese research team sifted through hundreds of samples of PET pollution before
finding a colony of organisms using the plastic as a food source.
Further tests found the bacteria almost completely degraded low-quality plastic within six
weeks. This was voracious when compared to other biological agents; including a related
bacteria, leaf compost and a fungus enzyme recently found to have an appetite for PET.
This is the first rigorous study it appears to be very carefully done that I have seen that
shows plastic being hydrolyzed [broken down] by bacteria, said Dr Tracy Mincer, a
researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
The molecules that form PET are bonded very strongly, said Prof Uwe Bornscheuer in an
accompanying comment piece in Science. Until recently, no organisms were known to be
able to decompose it.
In a Gaian twist, initial genetic examination revealed the bacteria, named Ideonella sakaiensis
201-F6, may have evolved enzymes specifically capable of breaking down PET in response to
the accumulation of the plastic in the environment in the past 70 years.

Such rapid evolution was possible, said Enzo Palombo, a professor of microbiology at
Swinburne University, given that microbes have an extraordinary ability to adapt to their
surroundings. If you put a bacteria in a situation where theyve only got one food source to
consume, over time they will adapt to do that, he said.
I think we are seeing how nature can surprise us and in the end the resiliency of nature
itself, added Mincer.
The bacteria took longer to eat away highly crystallised PET, which is used in plastic bottles.
That means the enzymes and processes would need refinement before they could be useful for
industrial recycling or pollution clean-up.
Its difficult to break down highly crystallised PET, said Prof Kenji Miyamoto from Keio
University, one of the authors of the study. Our research results are just the initiation for the
application. We have to work on so many issues needed for various applications. It takes a
long time, he said.

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Electron microscope image of a degraded PET film surface after washing out adherent cells.
The inset shows intact PET film. Photograph: Science Journal, Yoshida et. al.
A third of all plastics end up in the environment and 8m tonnes end up in the ocean every
year, creating vast accumulations of life-choking rubbish.
PET makes up almost one-sixth of the worlds annual plastic production of 311m tons.
Despite PET being one of the more commonly recycled plastics, the World Economic Forum
(WEF) reports that only just over half is ever collected for recycling and far less actually ends
up being reused.
Advances in biodegradable plastics and recycling offer hope for the future, said Bornscheuer,
but [this] does not help to get rid of the plastics already in the environment.
However the potential applications of the discovery remain unclear. The most obvious use
would be as a biological agent in nature, said Palombo. Bacteria could be sprayed on the huge
floating trash heaps building up in the oceans. This method is most notably employed to
combat oil spills.
This particular bacteria would not be useful for this process as it only consumes PET, which is
too dense to float on water. But Bornscheuer said the discovery could open the door to the
discovery or manufacture of biological agents able to break down other plastics.
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Palombo said the discovery suggested that other bacteria may have already evolved to do this
job and simply needed to be found.

I would not be surprised if samples of ocean plastics contained microbes that are happily
growing on this material and could be isolated in the same manner, he said.
But Mincer said breaking down ocean rubbish came with dangers of its own. Plastics often
contain additives that can be toxic when released. WEF estimates that the 150m tonnes of
plastic currently in the ocean contain roughly 23m tonnes of additives.
Plastic debris may have been less toxic in the whole unhydrolyzed form where it would
ultimately have been buried in the sediments on a geological timescale, said Mincer.
Beyond dealing with the plastic already fouling up the environment, the bacteria could
potentially be used in industrial recycling processes.
Certainly, the use of these microbes or enzymes could play a role in remediation of plastic in
a controlled reactor, said Mincer.
Miyamotos team suggested that the environmentally-benign constituents left behind by the
bacteria could be the same ones from which the plastic is formed. If this were true and a
process could be developed to isolate them, Bornscheuer said: This could provide huge
savings in the production of new polymer without the need for petrol-based starting
materials. According to the WEF, 6% of global oil production is devoted to the production of
plastics.
But the plastics industry said the potential for a new biological process to replace or augment
the current mechanical recycling process was very small.
PET is 100% recyclable, said Mike Neal, the chairman of the Committee of PET
Manufacturers in Europe. I expect that a biodegradation system would require a similar
engineering process to chemical depolymerisation and as such is unlikely to be economically
viable, he said.