The first plastic-eating bacteria known to science has been discovered by a team of Japanese researchers, potentially paving the way for its use in industrial recycling and the cleaning-up of pollution.

One of the most common plastics in the world – polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – can have its molecular bonds broken by the bacteria in as little as six weeks, as the bacteria actually uses the plastic as a food source.

Incredibly, the bacteria appears to have evolved enzymes specifically to enable it to break down plastic as a result of the massive amounts which are now ever-present in the environment.

Professor of microbiology at Swinburne University, Enzo Palombo, believes this to be the case. He said: “If you put a bacteria in a situation where they’ve only got one food source to consume, over time they will adapt to do that.”

Annually, around 33% of all plastics end up in either soil or waterways across the globe, causing huge damage to the environment.

Here at TrakRap, whilst we naturally think that this is fantastic news for everyone, it is equally important that we put measures in place in order to keep dumped plastics out of our environment in the first place. As everybody knows, prevention is better than cure.