A way to select a suite of mangrove bacteria that can transform plastic has been developed potentially offering a new strategy in the global toolkit of plastic waste cleanup. Researchers have assessed the impact of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) particles and seawater intrusion on the microbiome of mangrove soil and then experimented with an enrichment culture to select a suite of PET-transforming microbes.

Plastic ocean pollution is growing globally at an alarming rate with plastic fragments found even in deep oceans remote from human settlements. Mangroves are important biodiversity hotspots that offer a range of ecosystem services but are increasingly at risk from many stressors including plastic pollution.

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