{"id":106487,"date":"2020-05-03T23:45:35","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T06:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/scientists-find-bacteria-that-eats-plastic"},"modified":"2020-05-05T23:40:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T06:40:19","slug":"scientists-find-bacteria-that-eats-plastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/scientists-find-bacteria-that-eats-plastic","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Find Bacteria That Eats Plastic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-find-bacteria-that-eats-plastic.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>German researchers have identified a strain of bacterium that not only breaks down toxic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/tag\/plastics\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plastic<\/a>, but also uses it as food to fuel the process, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2020\/mar\/27\/scientists-find-bug-that-feasts-on-toxic-plastic\" target=\"_blank\">according to The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The scientists discovered the strain of bacteria, known as <em>p<\/em><em>seudomonas bacteria<\/em>, at a dump site loaded with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/tag\/plastic-waste\">plastic waste<\/a>, where they noticed that it was attacking polyurethane. Polyurethane\u2019s are ubiquitous in plastic products because they are pliable and durable. However, when they reach the end of their usefulness and end up in landfills, they decompose slowly and slowly release toxic chemicals into the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/tag\/soil\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">soil<\/a> as they degrade. They are also notoriously difficult to recycle, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.courthousenews.com\/bacteria-provide-key-to-recycling-durable-plastics\/\" target=\"_blank\">according to Courthouse News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>German researchers have identified a strain of bacterium that not only breaks down toxic plastic, but also uses it as food to fuel the process, according to The Guardian. The scientists discovered the strain of bacteria, known as pseudomonas bacteria, at a dump site loaded with plastic waste, where they noticed that it was attacking [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1506],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106487"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106630,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106487\/revisions\/106630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}