Assessment of the biodegradation mechanism and the potential effects of NuPlastiQ XP in the marine environment

The accumulation of plastic waste is one of the main problems of the coming decades, making research aimed at better understanding the situation and seeking priority solutions in efforts aimed at the environment. Data from the last few years show that tons of plastic waste have entered the oceans, alerting the great world authorities about the harmful effects that this debris can cause to living beings, their trophic chains and, consequently, human health. Given this, a promising alternative is a better understanding of the microorganisms that aggregate to these plastic surfaces, and form complex biofilms that have the ability to biodegrade these polymers. Thus, this work aims to evaluate and characterize the succession of the bacterial community associated with different plastics in response to the time of exposure and the type of polymer in waters of the pelagic region in Saco da Ribeira located in Ubatuba, Sao Paulo.