The Role of Microbes in Plastic Degradation

Human society benefited from the use of polymers since approximately 1600 BC when the ancient Mesoamericans first processed natural rubber into balls, figurines, and bands (Hosler et al., 1999). In 1862, Alexander Parkes unveiled the first man-made plastic in the Great International Exhibition at London. He dubbed the material as “Parkesine,” now called as celluloid. In 1907, chemist Leo Hendrik Baekland, while striving to produce a synthetic varnish, stumbled upon the formula for a new synthetic polymer originating from coal tar. He subsequently named the new substance “Bakelite.” By 1909, Baekland had coined “plastics” as the term to describe this completely new category of materials. The first patent for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a substance now used widely in vinyl CONTENTS