Plastic has been a critical part of our daily life. In fact, we produce several million tonnes of waste every year, which is harming the environment. However, Japanese researchers have discovered plastic-loving bacteria that eat it up, which could solve the world's garbage problem.

The plastic-eating bacteria named Ideonella sakaiensis was discovered by the team at Kyoto University. They discovered that the bacteria can degrade poly(ethylene terephthalate) or PET, a hardy and non-biodegradable type of plastic, into a biodegradable form.

Their research is published in the journal Science.

Converting the Bacteria's Capabilities into Recycling

The Japanese researchers isolated the bacteria after five years of sifting through 250 samples. The Ideonella sakaiensis species eats up plastic by using two enzymes that break down the PET plastic. According to Live Science, before the discovery, there were only two rare species of fungi that could break down PET plastic.

"The bacterium is the first strain having a potential to degrade PET completely into carbon dioxide and water," research co-author Kohei Oda of Japan's Kyoto Institute of Technology said.

Co-author Shosuke Yoshida believes that the bacteria could be used to biologically recycle plastic, a feat that has never been done before. Discovery News reports that breaking down plastic takes six weeks and is therefore slow, but he believes that the bacteria can be enhanced with industrial engineering to hasten the process.

"We have shared the possibility of biological recycling of plastic," Yoshida explained. "We want to develop this discovery into the application. This is the very first step."

Plastic Recycling Could be the Future

Our penchant to use plastic in our everyday life may be offset with the new discovery, which could be turned into an innovative technology to enable us to continue using it.

Dr. Tracy Mincer of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found the study incredulous but explained that nature is resilient.

"This is the first rigorous study -- it appears to be very carefully done - that I have seen that shows plastic being hydrolyzed [broken down] by bacteria," Dr. Mincer said as reported by The Guardian. "I think we are seeing how nature can surprise us and in the end the resiliency of nature itself."

Another researcher, Prof. Kenji Miyamoto, explained that highly crystallized PET can be difficult to break down and thus presents a problem for their research on the plastic-loving bacteria.

Miyamoto said that a lot more work is still necessary to figure out how the bacteria can be used for different applications -- a process that will require a lot of time.