A Review on Biodegradation of Polythene: The Microbial Approach

The use of polythene is increasing day by day and its degradation is becoming a great challenge. Annually about 500 billion to 1 trillion polythene carry bags are being consumed around the globe. Polythene is durable and needs up to 1000 years for natural degradation in the environment. This present review focuses on the level of polythene pollution, cost effective methodsof polythene degradation, the source of polythene degrading microbes, brief mechanism of polythene degradation, the methods used for the biodegradation of the polythene, the assessment of polythene degradation by efficient microbes, the products of polythene under degradation process and the future aspects of polythene degradation. A brief survey is presented on various individual groups of enzymes such as laccase, cutinase, hydrolase, esterase, protease and urease etc. These enzymes are secreted by various predominant microbes like Streptococcus, Bacillus, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Phanerochaete, Pestalotiopsis etc.