Ocean Bugs Eat Plastic? Researchers are zeroing in on marine
microbes that may help clean up some of the 127 million tons of
"disposable" plastic produced every year, 10 percent of which
ends up in the ocean. Early research from the University of
Sheffield and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and
Aquaculture Science finds: - The marine microbe groups that can
grow on plastic waste are significantly different from the
microbial groups that colonize natural ocean surfaces. - This
suggests that plastic-associated marine microbes have different
metabolic activities that could contribute to the breakdown of
plastics or of the toxic chemicals associated with them. This is
the first DNA-based study to investigate how microbes interact
with plastic. Specifically, the team investigated the attachment
of microbes to fragments of polyethylene, the plastic commonly
used for shopping bags. They found the plastic was rapidly
colonized by multiple—though not every—species of bacteria,
which congregated into a biofilm o