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Sustainable production and degradation of plastics using microbes

Nature Microbiology volume 8, pages 2253–2276 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Plastics are indispensable in everyday life and industry, but the environmental impact of plastic waste on ecosystems and human health is a huge concern. Microbial biotechnology offers sustainable routes to plastic production and waste management. Bacteria and fungi can produce plastics, as well as their constituent monomers, from renewable biomass, such as crops, agricultural residues, wood and organic waste. Bacteria and fungi can also degrade plastics. We review state-of-the-art microbial technologies for sustainable production and degradation of bio-based plastics and highlight the potential contributions of microorganisms to a circular economy for plastics.

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Fig. 1: Life cycle of plastics produced using microbial biotechnologies.
Fig. 2: Representative metabolic map for the production of bioplastics.
Fig. 3: Strategies for bioplastic production.
Fig. 4: Degradation of plastics by microbes.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Development of Platform Technologies of Microbial Cell Factories for the Next-Generation Biorefineries Project (2022M3J5A1056117) and the Development of Platform Technology for the Production of Novel Aromatic Bioplastic Using Microbial Cell Factories Project (2022M3J4A1053699) from the National Research Foundation supported by the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: So Young Choi, Youngjoon Lee.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering National Research Laboratory, Systems Metabolic Engineering and Systems Healthcare Cross-Generation Collaborative Laboratory, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (BK21 Four), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    So Young Choi, Youngjoon Lee, Hye Eun Yu, In Jin Cho, Minju Kang & Sang Yup Lee

  2. KAIST Institute for BioCentury, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    So Young Choi, Youngjoon Lee, Hye Eun Yu, In Jin Cho, Minju Kang & Sang Yup Lee

  3. BioProcess Engineering Research Center, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    So Young Choi, Youngjoon Lee, In Jin Cho & Sang Yup Lee

  4. BioInformatics Research Center, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Sang Yup Lee

  5. Graduate School of Engineering Biology, KAIST, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Sang Yup Lee

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S.Y.L. conceived the project. S.Y.C., I.J.C., Y.L., H.E.Y., M.K. and S.Y.L. wrote the manuscript. S.Y.C., I.J.C., Y.L., H.E.Y. and M.K. prepared the figures and table.

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Choi, S.Y., Lee, Y., Yu, H.E. et al. Sustainable production and degradation of plastics using microbes. Nat Microbiol 8, 2253–2276 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-023-01529-1

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