Artificial Rubber Mineralization by Co-Cultured Bacterial Strains Isolated from Rubber Plantation Area

Synthetic plastics are extensively used in packaging of products like food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, detergents and chemicals. Approximately 30% of the plastics are used worldwide for packaging applications. This utilization is still expanding at a high rate of 12% per annum. Hence, the removal of plastic from the environment has become a very important problem. The objective of the present study was Mineralization of artificial rubber by co-cultured Bacterial strains isolated from rubber plantation soil. Co-cultured bacterial strains had the capacity to mineralize plastic and Bioplastics. Mineralisation of the artificial rubber and plastics were confirmed by Spectrophotmetric and Fourier Transform Infra- Red (FTIR) studies. Artificial rubber, plastics and bioplastics degraded by the co-cultures were studied at different concentrations. Mineralization of artificial rubber was maximum (6.48 x 10-5) on the 20th Day. The co-cultured bacterial strains were identified as Bacillus cohnii and Brevundimonasnae jangsanensis. Further the Co-cultured bacterial strains were applied for the treatment of plastic and bioplastics which was confirmed by SEM analysis. Hence such isolated cocultures can be applied in the removal of artificial rubber, plastics and bioplastics present in the contaminated environment.