Plastics, non-biodegradable before, not anymore
Each barangay, town or city in the Philippines has its own story to tell about its waste disposal problems. While some of them lack or have none to guarantee good waste disposal management, the town of Los Baños in Laguna has one to vouch for a cleaner future with the promising results of a research project currently done by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). Dr. Virginia Cuevas of the Institute of Biological Sciences of UPLB and her co-researchers have recently identified Xylaria mutants that can be potentially developed into a product capable of degrading plastic bags usually found in dumpsites. Xylaria is a fungus that grows on dead wood, utilizing the latter’s components such cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin as food. In 2001, Dr. Cuevas showed evidence of Xylaria colonizing polyethylene (PET) plastic strips. Most plastic bags, including garbage bags, are now made of PET.