Pre-oxidation of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) by ultraviolet light (UV) promotes enhanced degradation of LDPE in soil

Polyethylene represents nearly 64% of all the synthetic plastics produced and are mainly used for domestic and industrial applications. Their extensive use poses a serious environmental threat because of their non-biodegradable nature. Among all the polyethylene remediation strategies, in situ bioremediation happens to be the safest and efficient one. In the current study, efforts had been given to compare the extent of LDPE degradation under UV-treated and UV-untreated conditions by soil microcosm. Landfill soil was collected and UV-treated and UV-untreated LDPE were added separately to the soil following incubation under similar conditions. Electron microscopic images as well as the weight loss and the tensile strength results clearly revealed that UV-treated LDPE showed better degradation than the non-treated ones in soil. To elucidate the mechanism of this enhanced biodegradation, the bond spectra of differentially treated LDPE were analyzed by FTIR. The results obtained from bond spectra studies revealed that UV treatment increases both carbonyl and terminal double-bond index of the LDPE, thereby making it highly susceptible for microbial degradation. Moreover, incubation of UV-treated LDPE with soil favors better adherence of metabolically active and significantly higher number of microorganisms on it. Taken together, all these results demonstrate the higher microbial association and their better metabolic potential to the UV-treated LDPE that lead to enhanced degradation of the LDPE by the soil microorganisms.