Plastic-Degrading Microbes

• 02 Sep 2025

Source: TH

A study in the Sundarban forest found a troubling link between plastic-degrading microbes and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), highlighting a new aspect of pollution that could worsen the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis.

• The Sundarbans world’s largest mangrove forest receives around 3 billion microplastic particles every day through the rivers that feed into the Bay of Bengal.
  • It promotes microbes with plastic-degrading enzymes(PDEs) that often carry antibiotic and metal resistance genes.
• Non-biodegradable plastics like polyethylene terephthalate (PET), persist in the environment, accumulating in water bodies and adsorbing pollutants, including heavy metals and antibiotics.
  • These microplastics foster bacteria with resistance genes, raising concerns about the spread of AMR.

Microplastics

• Microplastics are plastic fragments <5 mm (nanoplastics <100 nm) formed from the breakdown of larger plastics via UV radiation, wind, and ocean currents. 
• Microplastics persist in ecosystems, harm marine life and food chains, and enter humans through ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact, affecting cells, immunity, hormones, and the cardiovascular system.
• Addressed globally by the UNEP Plastics Treaty and in India through the Single-Use Plastics Ban and Plastic Waste Management Rules (2016 & 2024).

Read More: Plastic Waste a Public Health Threat