Studies on biodegradation of LDPE film in the presence of potential bacterial consortia enriched soil

Abstract

Low density polyethylene (LDPE) is an important commodity plastic and has a wide applicability in the modern era. In virtue of their wide applicability, the generation of the huge plastic waste became a conundrum for environment and public health. Consequently, the present study was conducted for the microbial degradation of LDPE film in natural conditions using mixture of potential polymer degrading consortia. For this purpose, the talc based formulation of bacterial consortia was inoculated into soil with LDPE film for the period of three months. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT–IR) in combination with SEM revealed that the consortia incurred significant surfacial degradation of LDPE film, introduction of hydroxyl (–OH) functionality and significant shifts in fingerprint region, respectively. The potential of the consortia towards degradation of LDPE has further been ascertained through change in bulk structural characteristics using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Moreover, the comparative in situ biodegradation study of LDPE film in laboratory and natural conditions indicates that environmental factors like sun-light, temperature and rainfall may enhance the rate of biodegradation of the polymer in nature.