Single-use plastics: Production, usage, disposal, and adverse impacts

Structural basis of terephthalate recognition by solute binding protein TphC

“…The presence of 2,5-pyridinedicarboxylate (2) and 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylate (22) have less pronounced, but still signi cant, stabilising interactions with TphC, displaying ΔT m s of 1.4 ± 1.1°C and 1.4 ± 0.7°C, respectively. The other para-substituted dicarboxylate analogues (3,(5)(6)(8)(9)(10)(11) regioisomers (12)(13), hetero-aromatics (14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19), bicyclic aromatics (20,23), the mono-carboxylate and carboxylate isosteres , unsaturated phenylpropanoates (45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50), phenols (51)(52), aromatic esters (53)(54)(55)(56) and aliphatic dicarboxylates (57-61) had either negligible effect on ΔT m s or their interactions with TphC were found to be slightly destabilising under the assay conditions. This indicates that for optimal interaction a six-membered para-substituted aromatic dicarboxylate is required, that limited additional substitution with hydroxyl groups around the ring and minor heteroaromatic modi cations are tolerated, and that extended aromatic systems are partially tolerated.…”

“…Since its rst synthesis back in 1941, PET has gradually emerged as the world's favorite food-safe plastic due to its robustness, chemical inertness and durability. Although regarded as non-toxic and 100% recyclable, single use convenience-sized PET bottles have made PET plastic the third most collected debris in beach clean-ups in more than 100 countries 2 and is overwhelmingly omnipresent in the terrestrial ecosystem 3,4 . The post-consumer recyclability of plastics is still questionable owing to a number of factors 5,6 , that have turned PET from a miraculous material into the scourge of the land and sea.…”

Biodeterioration of Microplastics: A promising step towards Plastics Waste Management

“…In the treatment asks beads were settled down due to bacterial action.Many studies describe that lm-type plastics required at least two months for biodegradation to occur (Yang et al 2015) which is a very long time for testing and makes it unsuitable for identi cation of new bacterial strains. Alternatively, surface area of beads is larger than lm of plastics, and chance of bacterial attachment increases which may speed up the reaction (Li et al 2020) To test this, we prescribed 40 days of incubation to beads in liquid media, rate of biodegradation and e ciency were improved. The apparent degradation e ciency was assessed by weight loss of beads in MSM, and Bacillus cereus degrade LLDPE by 15% and Alcaligenes faecalis degrade polyester by 17.3% and weight loss for other types of plastic were also noted as mentioned in section.…”

“…Hence, difference in biodegradation rate between LLDPE, HDPE and polyester may be due to presence of speci c enzymes or concentrations of different enzymes required for different plastic degradation. Recommending that during growth of bacteria, may have different metabolism rate and uptake of energy from plastic as a source of carbon (Li et al 2020). PE microplastics can be categorized into HDPE and LDPE.…”

“…Various strategies utilized for plastic waste management are garbage lot, burning and reusing, every one of these techniques has its disadvantages, for example plastics are burnt or incorporated into land lls utilizes sources of land, which causes pollution and limited natural resources are being wasted. Currently limited quantities are reused and this causes prevention to the idea of circular economy (Chen et al 2020).…”