Abstract

The ever-increasing usage of plastic [Poly Ethylene Terephthalate (PET bottle)] in our day-to-day life is inevitable; hence need to find remedy to inundated waste generated from its usage. The aims of this study is to bio remediate the polyethylene terephthalate (pet bottle) from contaminated soil with pet bottles. Soil sample contaminated with the pet bottle was collected from Elepe dumpsite, Ikorodu, Lagos State. Five different bacteria (Pseudomonas alcaligenes, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas fluorescence, Pseudomonas cepacia and Bacillus firmus were isolated from the soil using a spread plate method and were identified using colonial and cellular morphology, and biochemical characterisation. However the isolated and identified organisms were inoculated into the new sterile pet bottle in nutrient broth and incubated for 10, 20, 30 days. The result of the degradation of the pet bottle in 10, 20, and 30 days by pseudomonas alcaligenes (11.43, 17.14 and 27.14 %); Pseudomonas putida (8.57, 14.28, and 22.86 %); Pseudomonas flourescence (9, 10.5, and 12.8 %); Pseudomonas cepacia (0, 0 and 0 %) and Bacillus firmus (0, 4.5, and 10.50 %) respectively. The Pseudomonas alcaligenes was found to be more effective than rest four degrading bacteria. It can be concluded that Pseudomonas alcaligenes, Pseudomonas putida, Pseudomonas fluorescence, and Bacillus firmus can degrade pet bottle within 30 days, with the exception of Pseudomonas cepacia.

Keywords: Biodegradation, Polyethylene terephthalate, Bacteria, and dumpsite