1. The document discusses various issues related to plastic waste, including how long it takes plastic to degrade and the problem of microplastics. 2. It then describes some potential solutions for reducing plastic waste, such as using biodegradable materials like plant-based plastics as alternatives through technologies like nanotechnology coatings, and developing enzymes that can break down plastics through genetic engineering techniques. 3. Recent research has discovered bacteria and fungi that can break down plastic, as well as techniques like ecobricks that reuse plastic waste.

1. NAME – PIYUSH PATHAK
BRANCH - EE(CORE)3RD
TOPIC - PLASTIC WASTE

2. PLASTIC WASTE
WHY PLASTIC IS SO BAD?
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR PLASTIC TO DEGRADE?
MICROPLASTIC
MARINE POLUTION
FROM POLUTION TO SOLUTION
(contents)

4. Before talking about the technical solution
to plastic, let us know why plastic is so
bad?
Plastic is not biodegradable like other organic matter, that is, it
does not get dissolved in the soil on its own.
Even after this it does not degrade completely.
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR PLASTIC TO
DEGRADE?
It takes 1,000 years for a plastic bag to degrade in a
landfill. Unfortunately, the bags don't break down
completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming
microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to
pollute the environment.

6. All plastic made by humans still exists today.
Just imagine, all the plastic that has been
made till date is still present.
The plastic we throw breaks down into small
particles called microplastics after a few weeks or
months or years.
Such small pieces of plastic whose size is less
than 5 mm.
This microplastic is also being found in our
water sources like ocean rivers i.e. the drinking
water supplied to our homes.
And it causes serious diseases like cancer.
Because plastic lasts for so long, every single

7. Microplastics are in our bodies. How much do
they harm us?
Over the course of a meal, you're most likely consuming
around 100 bits of microplastic and, over the course of a
year, closer to 70,000 pieces.
In 2017, Belgian scientists announced that
seafood lovers could consume up to 11,000
plastic particles a year by eating mussels, a
favorite dish in that country.

8. MARINE POLUTION
If we talk about marine pollution, plastic is 80%
responsible for marine pollution.
Approx one crore tonnes of plastic is reaching
the ocean every year.
If plastic continues to reach the oceans like
this, then by 2050 the weight of plastic in the
ocean will be more than the total weight of fish.
Not only is so much plastic in the ocean
dangerous for marine life, it will also lead to
more plastic entering the bodies of people who
eat fish etc.

9. By 2025, there will be 250 million metric tons of plastic
in the oceans, said the United Kingdom-based
Environmental Investigations Agency, or EIA. It said
the figure will rise to around 700 million tons by 2040,
which is equal to the estimated weight of all the fish in
the oceans.

11. But despite all these problems related to plastic, the
production of plastic is continuously increasing.
In the last 10 years alone, we have
produced more plastic than we have
produced in an entire century.
But after all these problems, what are its
solutions?
Usually it is talked about whether to
recycle or just stop using that plastic.
How effective have these solutions not
been proven so far?

12. Only 9% of plastic is recycled worldwide.
India produces 3.4 million tonnes of plastic waste in
a year, only 30 per cent of it is recycled," it said.
While the rest of the plastic waste is sent to landfills or aquatic
dumps, the report noted and suggested ways to deal with the
challenge as the entire plastic value chain from production to
waste disposal severely impacts the local ecologies it
surrounds.

15. Banning single use plastic is not enough. Secondly, it
will create a lot of inconvenience for the people.
So now we will talk about futuristic technology
and ideas which can help a lot in solving the
problem of plastic.

17. As we discussed, plastic is not biodegradable and
remains there.
So the first solution could be that we use biodegradable
materials instead of plastic. Especially in packaging in which
plastic is used the most.

18. Overall, 40% of the plastic we produce is used
only in packaging.

19. We can use other natural materials for
traditional packaging.
For example:- cloth bag, Or at some places
food is packed in banana leaves?

20. But to be honest, plastic works better than all of these. It doesn't
leak. It is stronger and lasts longer.
Now, if we want all these benefits from natural
substitutes, then we will have to use some technologies.
NANO TECHNOLOGI
With the help of nanotechnology, we can apply such coating on
paper cup, cardboard or banana leaf that it becomes water
resistant and stronger and this can solve all our problems due to
which we use plastic for packaging.

21. Take the paper cup for example. We generally think that paper
cups are better than plastic cups because they are made of
paper.
But the truth is that paper cups are coated with plastic so that
they can retain liquid and not melt.
Now plastic has come here again, hence it becomes difficult to
recycle these paper cups.
But this is where with the help of nanotechnology we can make such
a coating which is thin and cost effective.

22. Finland company Kotka mills has done exactly the
same. In this, by using nano technology, they have
made a coating on paper cups which is completely
biodegradable.
Because it is water based and being water based, it
provides all the properties of plastic coating. That
means it works in the same way. But it can be easily
recycled.

24. PLANT BASED PLASTIC –
Plant-based plastic is a type
of bioplastic that is created from agricultural scraps,
often from corn, sugarcane, wheat or food waste.

25. BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC
Those plastics which decompose on their own in the natural
environment are called biodegradable plastics.
Biodegradable plastics are commonly produced with
renewable raw materials, micro-organisms, petrochemicals, or
combinations of all three.
COMPOSTABLE
Secondly, those products have to be decomposed using
heat and water. Those products are called compostable.
Compostable plastic is made by chemically manipulating
plant sugars such as corn starch and sugar cane to achieve
similar properties; the flimsier, cardboardlike compostable
bowls are molded out of bamboo and other plant fibers.

26. POLYLACTIC ACID
Poly lactic acid is a very popular compostable plastic which is
made from corn and sugarcane etc.
Due to its strength and low toxicity, it is also being used in
packaging and textile centres.
There are many companies in India and abroad which are
working on this.
FOR EXAMPLE:-
Biogreen in India manufactures many types of
biodegradable products.
like water bottles, dinner plates, bowls, spoons, straws and many
other products.

27. And there's a company called Chuck that makes compostable
table wear.
In 2018, Indian Railways also accepted the product of
this company and started using it.

29. These are some ideas. We can reduce the use of
plastic by making other alternators.
But we also need some ways to remove the plastic
that we have already made from the environment.
Do you remember, all the plastic that has been
made till date is still present.
Apart from this, it is difficult to eliminate the use of
plastic completely.
So, if we are able to develop such a technique by
which we can deal with the plastic filled in landfills.
Either way that would be great for the environment.
Recently a huge technological break through was
achieved in this field which can help a lot in managing
plastic waste.

30. GENETIC ENGINEERING
1:- In March 2016, scientists in Japan published an extraordinary finding.
After scooping up some sludge from outside a bottle recycling facility in
Osaka, they discovered bacteria which had developed the ability to
decompose, or “eat,” plastic.
2:- The bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis, was only able to eat a particular
kind of plastic called PET, from which bottles are commonly made, and it
could not do so nearly fast enough to mitigate the tens of millions of tons of
plastic waste that enter the environment every year.

31. 1:- In 2016, Japanese scientists made a shocking discovery
by taking a waste water sample from a PET plastic recycling
site.
2:-PET plastic is the same plastic that is used to make bottles.
3:-After examining the waste water, they found a new strain of
bacteria that could grow in pieces of PET plastic.
4:-This bacteria can also use PET as its food, due to which it
can rot the plastic.
5:-Basically this bacteria can cause breakdown by eating
plastic.
6:-They found that this bacteria produces an enzyme that
causes PET to break down into its original form due to a
chemical reaction. Meaning, the chemicals from which that
plastic was made can be formed again.
And then can make plastic again.
7:-It is being seen in the beginning. This enzyme can be
modified and used more efficiently on an industrial scale and
can decompose plastics which cannot decompose naturally.

32. 1:-In 2020, researchers of this bacteria created a super
enzyme by combining the enzymes of this bacteria.
2:-Which can decompose pet plastic 6 times faster.
3:-Research says that in the next several years we are
going to see demonstration plans that can completely
recycle plastic with the help of this enzyme.

33. In 2011, researchers at Yale University tested the
ability of several dozen fungi to digest the synthetic
polymer polyester polyurethane (PUR), a type of
plastic.
They found that several members of the
Pestalotiopsis genus of fungi were capable of
degrading PUR and converting it into organic matter in
both solid and liquid suspensions.
Two members of this genus were able to survive
solely off PUR in anaerobic, or oxygen-free, and
aerobic, or oxygenated, environments.
The discovery of Pestalotiopsis’ ability to
decompose plastic led to further research into plastic
decomposition by fungi. Researchers have now found
that many species are capable of plastic bioremediation

35. ECO BICKS
An ecobrick is a plastic bottle densely packed with used
plastic to create a reusable building block that achieves
plastic sequestration.