Microbial Degradation of Microplastics

The increasing plastics production and consumption, mainly in the form of disposable products, consists one of the major environmental threats transforming the Blue Planet into the Plastic One. The synthetic materials introduced to the biosphere ends in the global ocean system and gradually degrade. Their constantly growing surface, called Plastisphere, is already considered one of the most important ecological niches. The biofilm on the polymers substrate is investigated. Various bacteria, but also insects and fungus, can decompose those resistant and durable materials. This chapter describes briefly the marine microplastics phenomena, their role and fate in the environment, uniqueness of the Plastisphere and presents the selected recent research on microbial degradation of polymers. Finally, future perspectives and directions are comprehensively outlined.