Potential of Rhodococcus pyridinovoran strain UCC0018 as the plastic waste degradation agent for green technology.

As widely known, plastic has become an integral element of human culture. Despite posing a serious environmental hazard, plastic continuously used in a variety of domains ranging from industries to agriculture to our daily lives due to its lightness, sturdiness, inertness, and low cost. Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is the thermoplastic that are commonly used to manufacture plastics bags and other plastic products. However, the excessive use of LDPE has caused a major environmental problem when they are accumulated in the environment. Currently, the physical and chemical methods of plastic degradation was proved to be inefficient and posed other environmental issues. As a result, eco-friendly methods like microbial plastic decomposition are being pursued as a better solution. This paper reports the potential ability of a Malaysian Rhodococci isolate obtained from Unisel Culture Collection (UCC), the Rhodococcus pyridinovoran strain UCC0018 in.LDPE biodegradation. The bacterium was cultured in nutrient broth supplemented with LDPE fine strips to evaluate the degradation of LDPE by weight reduction test. Results obtained demonstrated degradation activity where it reduced the weight of LDPE strips up to 5.2% after 24 hours of incubation. This result indicated the promising potential of Malaysian Rhodococcus in degrading LDPE. Based on this discovery, the initiative intends to cultivate the bacteria in large quantities, optimize the degradation activity, and work with the industry to turn the bacteria into a product that can be utilized to address Malaysia's plastic waste problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]