Deciphering the advances in bioaugmentation of plastic wastes

Bioaugmentation is the restorative strategy to deal with gigantic amount of plastic wastes in landfills and oceans. The extensive utilization of conventional plastics in versatile commercial applications possesses excessive atrocities to the environment and sources of fossil fuels. Conventional plastics can be replaced using bioplastics which are originated during production of renewable resources. Although, the technology for plastic wastes has been improvised but the proliferation in population of world over 2050 i.e. up to 9 million which requires stipulation in production of plastics, ultimately results in increase in plastic wastes quantity. The biodegradation of renewable resources like agricultural wastes and their properties enable it to be utilized more in contrary to traditional plastics. The biodegradation of plastics is influenced by various chemical and physical parameters. Eventually, the future of mankind will reckon on the generation of polymers that are sustainable and can be extracted from renewable feed stocks which would be secured, recycled, reused and most importantly environmental benign. This robust review has thrown light on the recent development and challenges in biodegradation including the biodegradation mechanism of plastics as well as bioplastics. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.