Plastic-Eating Microbes Show Promise to Gobble Up Pollutants
h2>From Research to Reality: Breaking Down Plastic in Rivers with Microbes
Growing up in Haiti, Ludmilla Aristilde saw environmental catastrophes all around her. Dirty water led to a devastating cholera epidemic. Deforestation left soil open to erosion, flooding, and other damage.
Now an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University, Aristilde leads a team that’s trying to harness nature’s ability to break down plastics in rivers with microbes.
The 18-person team’s latest finding has helped science inch closer to answering a question that’s perplexed researchers for years: Can the bacteria that cling to plastic bottles in rivers eat up all of that plastic and help get rid of that pollutant?
The answer, according to Aristilde’s team’s recently published research, is yes.
In the Lab: Breaking Down Plastics with Microbes
They studied Comamonas testosteroni, a bacterium commonly found in wastewater. In the lab, it chomped on the kinds of plastics used in water and pop bottles, breaking them down and then gobbling up the extremely tiny remaining pieces of microplastics.
Their study, recently published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, suggests that some day wastewater-treatment operations might be able to use these microbes to break down microplastics before water is released back into the environment.
The treatment plants could be key to reducing the billions of tons of plastic waste that contaminate ecosystems across the world and result in fish and other aquatic life ingesting tiny particles, Aristilde says.
“This is very important because it lets us have some insight into what happens naturally in wastewater, but also we can leverage this capability of this bacterium for engineering solutions,” Aristilde says. “We can learn from nature to engineer sustainable solutions.”
Making a Breakthrough
Future research should also focus on how plant-based materials can be used in plastic manufacturing, says Nanqing Zhou, a postdoctoral researcher and co-author of the study.
“Plastic pollution is not only about how we deal with plastic waste,” Zhou says. “It’s also how we produce plastics.”
Water Treatment Plants: A Key to Reducing Plastic Pollution
This type of research is of great interest to wastewater-treatment operations.
“We eagerly anticipate a future where plastic waste no longer threatens aquatic environments and remain committed to tracking developments in this area,” says Allison Fore, spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. This research “aims to enhance our understanding of the potential harm to human health, aquatic life, and surrounding ecosystems.”
About Ludmilla Aristilde
Aristilde, 43, was born in Haiti. As a teenager and newly arrived immigrant in Brooklyn, she says she wasn’t thinking about a career in science or engineering. The daughter of two educators was more interested in art, which is still one of her passions.
But, as the first person in decades at her high school to be accepted to an Ivy League school, her interest in environmental engineering grew at Cornell University and later at the University of California-Berkeley.
She was back at Cornell, teaching, when she was recruited by Northwestern. Aristilde moved to Evanston in the summer of 2019. She hopes to attain full professor status in the coming months.
Northwestern officials were drawn to Aristilde because of her research, which they describe as tremendously important to human health and the environment, and her work ethic.
“Her work is very interesting and has a high impact,” says Kimberly Gray, who chairs Northwestern’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “She is very intense about her work. She is very demanding about her work.”
Breaking Down Barriers
Aristilde talks of going to conferences at which she’s been asked, “What lab do you belong to — with no assumption that I just happen to be the professor and I have almost 18 people that I supervise. And it happens all the time.
“It is well documented in academia, specifically in the sciences, that there are a lot of visible and invisible barriers. I’m not the first person to say that. The diversity in academia has not improved that much since I was a student,” she says.
Gray says the field of engineering is making progress but that it “hasn’t always been a friendly place for women.”
Conclusion
Aristilde’s team is working to leverage the capabilities of naturally occurring microbes to break down plastics and reduce plastic pollution. Their research shows promise for making a significant impact in the fight against plastic pollution.
FAQs
- What is the research about?
- How does this help reduce plastic pollution?
- What are the implications for wastewater treatment plants?
- What’s next for the research?
Aristilde’s team is studying the ability of certain bacteria to break down plastic waste in rivers and wastewater treatment plants.
By breaking down plastic into smaller pieces, the bacteria can reduce the amount of plastic that enters into the environment and harms aquatic life.
Wastewater treatment plants could use these microbes to break down microplastics before releasing treated water back into the environment.
Aristilde’s team plans to continue studying the capabilities of these microbes and exploring their potential applications in wastewater treatment.
