Biodegradation of Polypropylene By Pseudomonas Aeruginosaisolated From Wastewater Associated Soil; A Potential Method To Eliminate The Plastic Pollution To Save Ecosystem

Abstract

The face mask introduction in SARS-CoV-2 pandemic situation, one of the precautionary measure to reduce the rate of transmission of infection from person to person. There are many type of of face masks enter into our global market with various size and designs. Among those, surgical mask belongs to secure an important place and this aimed to evaluate the degrading efficiency disposable face masks (single use face masks). The present study dealt with, biodegradation of face masks which is made of polypropylene with the help of bacterial strainPesudomonasaeruginosaisolated from the plastic waste dumping sites in an around the Tiruchirappalli, India. The bacteriacould degrade PP mask via the formation of biofilm on a solid medium. To degrade the PP, the mask pieces were incubated with the culture of P. aeruginosain three different solid and liquid medium (nutrient agar, Bushnell Haas agar and mineral salt medium) for 30 days at 37ᵒC. The microbial degradation(up to 33% of weight reduction of PP films within 30 days) was proved by surface changes along with the variation in the intensity of functional groups as well as carbonyl index variations using Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. These results suggested that P.aeruginosa strain can prove to be a suitable candidate for polypropylene mask biodegradation without causing any impairment to our health or environment.