Photo: Andy Kelly
The amount of plastic used and discarded is growing at an alarming rate. Microbes found in cattle stomachs can break down certain kinds of plastic, and the small building block molecules left behind can be reused to make recycled plastics. Researchers investigated the content of the rumen (a compartment of the cow’s stomach) because microbes in it break down plant matter that cows eat before it goes on to other parts for digestion. The team obtained fresh rumen liquid and incubated it with three types of plastics: PET, used commonly in textiles and packaging); PBAT, a biodegradable plastic used to make compostable plastic bags; and PEF, another biobased polymer. They tested both film and powder forms of each plastic. The fluid broke down all three types, and the powders degraded faster than the films. Further research intends to pinpoint which microbes in the rumen are key to the plastic degradation so that they can be made on a larger commercial scale for plastic recycling.
Source: Quartinello F et al. Together Is Better: The Rumen Microbial Community as Biological Toolbox for Degradation of Synthetic Polyesters. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 2021.
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