Plastic eating bacteria still live from the early days on earth!! Being a best CBSE School in Coimbatore we educate children about the decomposition ways of plastic. They should know in order to save the earth and to make the earth green ever!
The global economy has been growing at a very fast pace over the last few decades, the signs of which are visible almost everywhere. Take the case of rapid industrialization. Similarly, countries have been aggressively building robust physical infrastructure to sustain economic growth, as well as to make life easier for its citizens. The real estate sector has also been witnessing unprecedented growth. Large residential townships are now a common sight. Urbanization is growing. Now, all this development has not come without a cost. Yes, we are talking about pollution here. Natural resources have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Landfills too are too filling up fast. Disposal of garbage has become a major problem these days. Whenever we are talking about pollution, the discussion about plastics inevitably comes up these days.
Interesting news trickling from time to time
There have been some interesting news trickling in too from time to time. One of the interesting report we heard about in recent times came in 2016. Scientists from two Japanese institutions, Kyoto Institute of Technology and Keio University had stumbled upon a bacteria that could quite literally gobble up plastic. They discovered this bacteria near a bottle recycling unit. They were found to decompose PET or Polyethylene Terephthalate. Ideonella Sakaiensis is the name of the bacteria. Since then there has been a lot of interest in this particular area. We also keep hearing news reports talking about some other types of bacterium, as well as fungi who too have been reportedly effective in decomposing different types of plastic.
A kind of enzymatic decomposition
While this kind of enzymatic decomposition could have good implications, these are still early days. There are several questions that need to be answered. For example, will such bacteria be able to decompose every type of plastic? Given the scale of the use of plastics, is it a practical solution? What are the pros and cons involved? , etc. These are questions that are best left to experts from different fields. There is plenty of research going on in major research institutions including in our country, about potential solutions to protect the environment. Hopefully a few sustainable and practical solutions will emerge.
As a best CBSE school in Coimbatore, we make sure that our students are learning about the latest happenings from the world of science. Our teachers have designed specific activities, such as essay writing competitions, sharing of latest news reports about ecology, skits, plays, etc., for different age groups to make them aware about environmental protection.