RESUMEN
Plastic pollution is a global issue and has become a major concern since Coronavirus disease (COVID)-19. In developing nations, landfilling and illegal waste disposal are typical ways to dispose of COVID-19-infected material. These technologies worsen plastic pollution and other human and animal health problems. Plastic degrades in light and heat, generating hazardous primary and secondary micro-plastic. Certain bacteria can degrade artificial polymers using genes, enzymes, and metabolic pathways. Microorganisms including bacteria degrade petrochemical plastics slowly. High molecular weight, strong chemical bonds, and excessive hydrophobicity reduce plastic biodegradation. There is not enough study on genes, enzymes, and bacteria-plastic interactions. Synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and bioinformatics methods have been created to biodegrade synthetic polymers. This review will focus on how microorganisms' degrading capacity can be increased using recent biotechnological techniques.
RESUMEN
The identification of microplastics (MP), especially small (<500 µm) MP, using automated surface-chemistry approaches requires the best possible reduction of natural particles whilst preserving the integrity of the targeted synthetic polymers particles. In general, both natural and synthetic particles can be highly diverse physically and chemically and MP extraction, particularly from complex matrices such as sediments, sludge and soils, requires efficient method pipelines. Our paper presents a universal framework of modular protocols (presented in a decision tree) that fulfil predefined user requirements (QuEChERS: Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, Safe) as well as providing best practises for reasonable MP working conditions within a standard laboratory. New procedures and technical innovations for density separation of particle-rich matrices are presented, such as a spiral conveyor developed and validated for MP recovery. In sharing such best-practice protocols, we aim to help in the push towards MP quantification method standardisation. â¢Publication of protocols of an entire MP extraction (10 µm - 5 mm) pipeline for particle-based analysis of various environmental matricesâ¢Modularity: Optimised quantitative sample preparation adapted to particle sizes and sample matricesâ¢New protocols and technical innovations (e.g. spiral conveyor) optimise MP extraction.