Arnav Sethi

Charu Jain

Abstract – Recently, a team of Japanese scientists from Kyoto University discovered Ideonella Sakaiensis, a species of bacteria that eats PET, a type of plastic found in most disposable plastic bottles. Before this, no organism was known to be able to decompose this plastic. This paper examines how Ideonella Sakaiensis degrades a bottle of plastic in 6 weeks, a process which takes almost 500 years via other means. It also discusses the possibility of using this bacteria to solve present-day environmental problems. Finally, it aims to establish a method to utilize this bacteria to secure our Earth’s future.