Abstract

BIODEGRADABILITY OF POLYETHYLENE BY ASPERGILLUS NIGER

Anchal Rani* and Padma Singh

Abstract

The work presented here for the degradation of LDPE and HDPE by the fungal isolate. Isolation was done by the serial dilution and pour plate method. Four soil samples were collected from different polyethylene dumping sites. Fungus were isolated on Czapek Dox Agar (CDA) medium and screen on minimal salt medium (MSM) supplemented with polyethylene powder by colony diameter method that was 39 mm in diameter. Main dominating fungus was identified as Aspergillus niger. Degradation was performed by shake flask method. Polyethylene weight was measured in every 15 days which is increase with time. Degradation in HDPE was minimum (0.217±09) within 15 days and maximum (1.116±54) within 60 days whereas for LDPE it was minimum (1.013±47) within 15 days and maximum (3.389±05) within 60 days respectively. Therefore it can be speculated that Aspergillus niger has enough potential to degrade polyethylene with due course of time.

Keywords: Aspergillus niger, HDPE, LDPE, biodegradation.