The role of microbial metabolic engineering for circular plastics economy

Engineering Microbial Systems for Plastic Biodegradation into Monomers to Bridge Natural Plastisphere Ecology with Industrial Circularity

Plastic pollution remains one of the most pressing environmental challenges of the twenty-first century. Global production reached 413.8 million tons in 2023 and 430.9 million tons in 2024, while annual post-consumer waste continues to approach 300 million tons. Conventional mechanical and chemical recycling routes rem...

Microbial synthesis and degradation of bio-based biodegradable plastics.

Microbial Consortia for Accelerated Degradation of Recalcitrant Plastics: A Review

The increasing accumulation of man-made plastic in the environment constitutes one of the most urgent types of ecological problems of the 21st century. Now that more than 400 million tons of plastic are produced every year and only around 9% of the total plastic ever created has been recycled, it is necessary to adopt...

Microbial-driven circular bioeconomy approaches for sustainable bioplastics management.

The growing plastic crisis and the necessity to shift the use of fossil resources have placed bioplastics as central alternatives to other materials in the global environment. These materials, which include polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), polylactic acid (PLA), and starch-based polymers, are derived as such that one can r...

Bioengineering microbial cellulose synthesis pathways as biofactory for industrial-scale cellulose production: a review on current advances

Key research priorities including development of genetically stable microbial strains, improved oxygen-management strategies, and integrated strain-process engineering required to translate MC production from laboratory to commercially viable biofactories are identified.

Fungal Biotechnology for Sustainable Biocomposites: From Mycelium Growth to Material Translation

This review critically evaluates mycelium-based biocomposites, with particular emphasis on the relationships between fungal biosynthesis, substrate transformation, processing strategies, and resulting material properties.