Challenges associated with plastic waste disposal and allied microbial routes for its effective degradation: A comprehensive review

Recalcitrant nature of plastic is a matter of huge concern, its increasing demand made it more complicated to handle the issue of plastic waste, and hence new challenges came in front in response to plastic degradation. With the increasing demand for plastics and rising pressure for its safe disposal, biodegradable plastics and plastic biodegradation gained a lot of attention in the recent years. Biodegradation of plastics is one of the best possible ways to treat these recalcitrant plastics in an environment-friendly manner. This paper reviews the recent achievements in the area of biodegradation with the best suitable microbial species to look after the issue of plastic waste disposal. The present review mainly focuses on the challenges involved in the process of plastic degradation, conventional treatments available to treat these plastics, the best possible routes of biodegradation and associated impacts on the society as well as on the environment. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.