Research Article Polyethylene degradation by Pseudomonas putida S3A

Pseudomonas putida S3A that has ability to degrade nylon6 film, crude nylon 6 and nylon 66 as sole source of nitrogen and carbon, isolated from soil contaminated with plastic waste, was included. This study was aimed to determine the ability of this isolate to degrade polyethylene as sole source of carbon. Some optimum conditions for degradation of polyethylene by this bacterium were studied. It was found that these conditions are growing P. putida S3A in mineral salt medium (pH 6.5) containing 0.5 % of polyethylene and incubated with shaking (180 rpm) at 37°C for seven days. In addition, it has been found that this bacterium was able to survive with up to 0.9 % of polyethylene. In order to insure that this bacterium was capable to degrade polyethylene, the Fourier Transformer Infrared Red Spectroscopy (FTIR) was used. Results indicated that polyethylene was degraded by P. putida S3A, which used the (O-H, C-O and C-H) groups as carbon source