DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2014.v02i02.004

Pages: 85-89

Plastic is a broad name given to different polymers with high molecular weight, which can be degraded by various processes. However, considering their abundance in the environment and their specificity in attacking plastics, biodegradation of plastics by microorganisms and enzymes seems to be the most effective process. When plastics are used as substrates for microorganisms, evaluation of their biodegradability should not only be based on their chemical structure, but also on their physical properties (melting point, glass transition temperature, crystallinity, storage modulus etc.). Present paper investigates the possibility of plastic degradation by microbes isolated from forest soil. The invitro degradation was studied by litter bag experiment by taking 1 g of each plastic and buried under forest soil at a depth of 15 cm from the surface during the month of September to February, 2010. An in-vitro experiment was started after collecting the plastic samples from the litter bag experiment and the microbes were isolated from the surface of the plastic. Then the isolated microbes inoculated in the nutrient agar. Result showed that no variety of plastic comfortable degraded under burial condition during 45 days. In the present study, plastics are highly resistant to degradation of plastics by using microorganisms is a great challenge. Hence an attempt has been made to determine the plastics degrading ablity of Micrococcus luteus and Masoniella sp.