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Assignment No.: 01
Assignment Question:
Q.1: Role of biodegradable products in sustainability of our Environment Biology.
Dated: May 23, 2021
Name : Javeria Qureshi
Registration No. : 17070
Semester : 1st
Course Name : Advanced Environmental Biology
Submitted to : Dr. Fida Hussain
Qurtuba University of Science & IT, Peshawar

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Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi.
The originally known utilization of biodegradable in a natural setting was in 1959 when it was utilized
to depict the breakdown of material into harmless segments by microorganisms. Presently biodegradable is
ordinarily connected with harmless to the ecosystem items that are essential for the world's inborn cycles like
the carbon cycle and equipped for disintegrating once more into common components.
As climate change looms over our future, many industries are turning to biotechnology for solutions
to make all aspects of our lives more sustainable for the environment. Biotechnology is uniquely positioned
to replace polluting materials and chemical processes with more sustainable, biological alternatives. This
scientific field draws from millions of years of evolution in which living beings have specialized in producing
and recycling all kinds of compounds and materials. These biological processes can be used to efficiently
break down waste and produce materials with lower pollution, water, land, and energy use than traditional
methods. The number of applications where biotechnology in terms of some biodegradable products could
make a difference towards sustainability is virtually unlimited.
Mechanism
The process of biodegradation can be divided into three stages: biodeterioration, biofragmentation,
and assimilation.
Biodeterioration is once in a while depicted as a surface-level degradation that changes the
mechanical, physical and synthetic properties of the material. This stage happens when the material is
presented to abiotic factors in the open air climate and takes into account further degradation by debilitating
the material's construction. Some abiotic factors that impact these underlying changes are pressure
(mechanical), light, temperature and synthetic compounds in the climate. While biodeterioration normally
happens as the main phase of biodegradation, it can at times be corresponding to biofragmentation. Hueck,
be that as it may, characterized Biodeterioration as the unfortunate activity of living beings on Man's
materials, including such things as breakdown of stone facades of structures, corrosion of metals by
microorganisms or merely the esthetic changes actuated on man-made structures by the development of living
life forms.
Biofragmentation of a polymer is the lytic interaction in which bonds within a polymer are cleaved,
creating oligomers and monomers in its place. The steps are taken to fragment these materials also differ
dependent on the presence of oxygen in the framework. The breakdown of materials by microorganisms when
oxygen is present in aerobic digestion, and the breakdown of materials when oxygen is not present is
anaerobic absorption. The primary distinction between these cycles is that anaerobic responses produce
methane, while oxygen consuming responses don't (nonetheless, the two responses produce carbon dioxide,
water, some sort of residue, and new biomass) also, high-impact absorption normally happens more quickly
than anaerobic assimilation, while anaerobic processing makes a superior showing decreasing the volume and

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mass of the material. Because of anaerobic absorption's capacity to decrease the volume and mass of waste
materials and produce a petroleum gas, anaerobic assimilation innovation is generally utilized for waste
management systems and as a source of local, renewable energy.
In the assimilation stage, the subsequent items from biofragmentation are then integrated into microbial cells.
Some of the products from fragmentation are easily transported within the cell by membrane carriers. In any
case, others actually need to go through biotransformation responses to yield items that would then be able to
be moved inside the cell. Once inside the cell, the items enter catabolic pathways that either lead to the creation
of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) or components of the cells structure.

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Factors Affecting Biodegradation rate
Factors affecting biodegradation rate include light, water, oxygen and temperature.
The significance, however, is in the relative rates of such processes, such as days, weeks,
years or centuries.
The degradation rate of many organic compounds is limited by their bioavailability, which
is the rate at which a substance is absorbed into a system or made available at the site of physiological
activity, as compounds must be released into solution before organisms can degrade them.
Approximated time for compounds to biodegrade in a marine environment
Product Time to Biodegrade
Paper towel 2–4 weeks
Newspaper 6 weeks
Apple core 2 months
Cardboard box 2 months
Wax coated milk carton 3 months
Cotton gloves 1–5 months
Wool gloves 1 year
Plywood 1–3 years
Painted wooden sticks 13 years
Plastic bags 10–20 years
Tin cans 50 years
Disposable diapers 50–100 years
Plastic bottle 100 years
Aluminium cans 200 years
Glass bottles Undetermined

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Time-frame for common items to break down in a terrestrial environment
Product Time to Biodegrade
Vegetables 5 days – 1 month
Paper 2–5 months
Cotton T-shirt 6 months
Orange peels 6 months
Tree leaves 1 year
Wool socks 1–5 years
Plastic-coated paper milk cartons 5 years
Leather shoes 25–40 years
Nylon fabric 30–40 years
Tin cans 50–100 years
Aluminium cans 80–100 years
Glass bottles 1 million years
Styrofoam cup 500 years to forever
Plastic bags 500 years to forever
Environmental and social effects
Plastic pollution from illegal dumping poses health risks to wildlife. Animals often mistake
plastics for food, resulting in intestinal entanglement. Slow-degrading chemicals, like
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), nonylpPage 5 of 6henol (NP), and pesticides also found in
plastics, can release into environments and subsequently also be ingested by wildlife. Thus, it is very
important that there are standards for plastic biodegradable products, which have a large impact on
the environment.
Rachel Carson, a notable environmentalist in the 1960s, provided one of the first key studies
on the consequences associated with chemical ingestion in wildlife, specifically birds. In her
work Silent Spring, she wrote on DDT, a pesticide commonly used in human agricultural activities.
Birds that ate the tainted bugs, Carson found, were more likely to produce eggs with thin and weak
shells.

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These chemicals also play a role in human health, as consumption of tainted food (in
processes called biomagnification and bioaccumulation) has been linked to issues such as
cancers, neurological dysfunction, and hormonal changes. A well-known example of
biomagnification impacting health in recent times is the increased exposure to dangerously high
levels of mercury in fish, which can affect sex hormones in humans.
In efforts to remediate the damages done by slow-degrading plastics, detergents, metals, and other
pollutants created by humans, economic costs have become a concern. Marine litter in particular is
notably difficult to quantify and review. Researchers at the World Trade Institute estimate that
cleanup initiatives' cost (specifically in ocean ecosystems) has hit close to thirteen billion dollars a
year. The main concern stems from marine environments, with the biggest cleanup efforts centering
around garbage patches in the ocean. In 2017, a garbage patch the size of Mexico was found in the
Pacific Ocean. It is estimated to be upwards of a million square miles in size. While the patch
contains more obvious examples of litter (plastic bottles, cans, and bags), tiny microplastics are
nearly impossible to clean up. National Geographic reports that even more non-biodegradable
materials are finding their way into vulnerable environments - nearly thirty-eight million pieces a
year.
Materials that have not degraded can also serve as shelter for invasive species, such as tube
worms and barnacles. When the ecosystem changes in response to the invasive species, resident
species and the natural balance of resources, genetic diversity, and species richness is altered. These
factors may support local economies in way of hunting and aquaculture, which suffer in response to
the change. Similarly, coastal communities which rely heavily on ecotourism lose revenue thanks to
a buildup of pollution, as their beaches or shores are no longer desirable to travelers. The World
Trade Institute also notes that the communities who often feel most of the effects of poor
biodegradation are poorer countries without the means to pay for their cleanup. In a positive feedback
loop effect, they in turn have trouble controlling their own pollution sources.