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Microplastics and plastic pollution are major ecological issues. Part of the reason why plastic has a hard time being broken down is that it is mainly made of non-polar functional groups that are stable and can not react with biological enzymes that well. Even when they can break down plastic, it releases toxic chemicals that can mess with the endocrine system. There are some bacteria that can make plastic more reactive through redox reactions so they can break it down. There are also some fungus that can produce enzymes that degrade plastic such as polymerases which can break down a wide variety of polymers. Many enzymes change the surface properties by changing the functional groups to make plastics more degradable.

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