Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

You must forgive me, fellow Steemians. For those who went through my last post, I promised to dedicate my subsequent posts to those relating to psychological disorders. However, this present post doesn’t seem to come anywhere near such - this is quite not deliberate. in fact I had begun writing on it as promised and I promise it will be very much as detailed and simplified as the past post. But this necessity popped out while watching the Al-Jazeera TechKnow show on Monday’s evening. The episode’s talk was about plastics and the menace they’re causing the society – Chocking the Planet was the episode’s title. It featured a start-up company that was employing an innovative way to solving the plastic waste problem, which centers upon recycling. This sets my thoughts into motion. I mean, “Wait a minute”. Can we not develop a plastic that eventually rots faster than usual? Because according to the anchor of the programme, plastic nylon takes about 500 years to completely disintegrate. That’s amazing, and that’s way too long.

My thought over this environmental concern is not a stand-alone thought as an in-law of mine who majored in Materials and Metallurgy Engineering researched on the possibilities of producing bio-degradable packing material from nut shells which can absolutely displace plastic in industries. We actually talked a lot about this during the research and it was during those times that he mentioned Cyanobacteria. I never took it serious until Monday when I saw TechKnow show on Al-Jazeera. Thus, I choose to quickly enlighten the community on bio-degradable plastics and cyanobacteria. I hope you’ll enjoy this, meanwhile this doesn’t mean you will not have the next episode of my psychological disorder series - which is actually on Dissociative Personality Disorder – coming your way next time.

Plastic and its Importance

The importance of plastics in today's society can never be overemphasized. It is said that

the use of plastic within the UK is set to double over the next 20 years.

This is not an idle claim as plastic products seem to manifest themselves in every facet of our living. In fact, you are probably wearing one at present - perhaps a polyester/cotton mix garment or watch or handbag adorned with various plastic parts or even the goggles you are presently putting on- remember your smartphone too. Look into your home and you will be amazed by the diverse forms of plastic material your furniture are made of. From your television to stereo sets to even the floor covering you walk upon. Take a stroll into your kitchen and entertain yourself with the records of the varying types and forms in which plastic manifest themselves in your day-to-day chores. The list is almost unlimited.

But there is a Problem.

Plastic is a constantly growing environmental menace - a disaster obvious for all to see. Majority of these plastics are manufactured from petroleum, a non-renewable resource derived from the underground using numerous power-exhaustive processes that interferes and disrupt the ecosystem in a redoubtable manner. Plastic production, in addition to its disposal, contaminates the environmental, including its water and air, with plastic packaging occupying a significant space on landfills. More to consider is the rate at which marine animals and land animals consume plastics mistaken for edible substances is a significant source of landfill waste and is regularly eaten by numerous marine and land animals leading to lethal results. Plastics are not biodegrade, especially the synthetic ones. They occupy undue spaces landfills and pollutes the air when attempts are made to destroy them through incinerators - in fact, they are complete environmental disaster during production and even after use.

Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons

The vast number of plastics manufactured and used in various forms worldwide is continually increase over the years, putting the environment at risk and becoming a cause of concern for environmental experts around globe due to its non-degradable capabilities. Plastic pollution may seem intangible to the naked eye but researches have revealed that microscopic portion of the plastic particles are everywhere; present in the air at various times and geographical location of the globe and particularly in the deep seas and oceans where they are mostly disposed to. Plastic is pervasive in our present world – a striving disaster, with most of them manufactured from petroleum, a non-degradable resources. The idea of biodegradable plastics is the ultimate solution to alleviating the impact of the conventional plastic on the environment by replacing plastics in the industries.

Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria belong to a group of photosynthetic bacteria that produce their food through the process of photosynthesis, otherwise known as photosynthetic bacteria. They are aquatic in nature, living mostly in water, moist soils, and around sinks and drains. They are usually found freely or in a symbiotic relationship with plants or fungi. Due to their nature (bacteria), they are found as unicellulous or filamentous organisms and they do for form colonies. Cyanobacteria derived the name from its phycocyanin content, a bluish pigment used to trap sunlight for the purpose of photosynthesis. They also do contain chlorophyll a, the pigment also used by plants. Cyanobateria's activities take credit for many of the Proterozoic oil deposits. Their importance in the earth's ecological change is quite tremendous. It is stated that prior to the Archaen and Proterozic, which were 4 billion year and 2.5 billion years ago respectively, the atmosphere had a very different gaseous formation unsuitable to sustain life, Cyanobateria are responsible for the generation of oxygen through their numerous activities. Cyanobacteria have a method of storing phosphates mainly in the form of polyphosphates, and they are also known to store carbohydrate as glycogen and nitrogen as cyanophycin.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Plant's chloroplast is a cyanobacterium, a pigment utilised by the plants to produce food in exchange for a place to stay (home) – a symbiotic relationship. Such is witnessed in some certain eukaryote cells with the bacteria (Cyanobateria), where the bacteria produces food for the cells in exchange of a home.

Cyanobacteria and Biodegradable Plastics.

Biodegradable plastics are plastics that naturally decompose by the action of microorganisms working on the components of the plastics, breaking them down into less harmful materials (i.e water, carbon dioxide and some biomaterials) as a result. Not all biodegradable plastics are made from biomaterials, numerous numbers of them are made from oil similarly to how conventional plastics are made only that they contain additives that enable them to decay more faster in the presence of oxygen and light.

Image Source: WikiMedia Commons

Cyanobacteria are very good source of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), an intracellular storage compound found in prokaryotic organisms. PHB is known to be a biodegradable compound. It is also environmental friendly, possesses complete resistance to water and has a thermoplastics biocompatible ability.

Cyanobacteria usually require very little nutrient for their activities and are also has a photo autotrophic nature. These features contribute to their ability to accumulate and produce PHP in considerable amount. The use of Cyanobateria for the industrial production of PHB has the benefit of converting carbon dioxide, a harmful greenhouse gas, to a biodegradable plastic, an environmental friendly plastic, using sunlight.

The biodegradable ability of PHB is the feature that set it apart from petroleum based plastics. Under aerobic condition, PHB is known to degrade into carbon dioxide and water, while the product of its disintegration under anaerobic conditions is carbon dioxide and methane gas. Studies conducted by various researchers hasve reveal that 85% of PHA will degrade in only seven weeks, unlike petroleum plastics which take years to accomplish same feat, while it will even degrade in aquatic environment (in the presence of excessive moisture) within 254 days.

Various researches have proved that cyanobacteria, a storehouse of poly-β-hydroxybutyrate otherwise known as PHB, can be an outstanding feedstock for the production of bio-degradable plastic due to its potential to generate the needed material in high yield thus proffering a way to utilize the environmental carbon, reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and lowering of the greenhouse gas emission from industries into the environment.

I hope you enjoyed and learn a lot from this. If you do, do not forget to say so, and if you don’t, please do same and let me know why so I may know how to express my ideas better next time. Thank you.

References: A Review Article on production of poly β hydroxybutyrates from cyanobacteria
for the production of bio plastics by Sundaramoorthy Balaji, Wikipedia, PEP Connecticut Plastics, Explain That Stuff, Futurenergia, Craftech Industries Web.