Biodegradation of Plastic By Mixed Culture of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Brevibacterium sp.
Elsa Dwicania (a), Astri Rinanti (a), Melati Ferianita Fachrul (a*)

a) Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Technology, Universitas Trisakti, Jakarta, Indonesia

*melati[at]trisakti.ac.id

Abstract

At present, plastic waste is one of the problems that is growing in Indonesia. Plastics take more than 400 years to degrade naturally. One way to degrade plastic waste is by biodegradation. This study aims to degrade Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) plastic using mixed culture bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Brevibacterium sp. The research conducted using plastic cutting 1 x 1 cm in size, as much as 10 gram was put into petri dish containing Nutrient Broth (NB) growth medium. The biodegradation process is carried out for 3 months with the test parameters being temperature (⁰C) and acidity value (pH). Gravimetric and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) methods were used to determine the weight, morphology, changes in structure and surface of polyethylene. The results showed that mixed bacterial culture has the potential to degrade LLDPE plastic with a percentage reduction of 15% at 35 ⁰C for 5 days. This study proves that mixed culture of bacteria can degrade LLDPE plastic by using it as a carbon source

Keywords: Plastics; Biodegradation; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Brevibacterium sp

Topic: Environmental Engineering

Link: https://ifory.id/abstract-plain/AV2WaYerP3up

Web Format | Corresponding Author (Melati Ferianita FACHRUL)