Plastics and microplastics are important environmental issues today. Actually, the whole ecosystem of the Earth is contaminated with the man-made materials with a continuous increase of their total quantities released. This new class of anthropogenically-synthesized materials is very high in molecular weight for their polymeric nature and has its own physical form with high persistence in the different compartments of ecosystem. Its occurrence in water, soil, air and biota including humans is evident. Degradation or bioremediation of plastics post utilization is a recognized major environmental issue facing both the scientific community and the society for sustainable development and protection of the natural environment. All plastics can be disintegrated over the exposure to sunlight to microplastics. Though plastics and microplastics have been received greater coverage by media and many research investigations have been made on this topic in an attempt for biodegradation of them by different microorganisms and insects. Currently available research information on this topic suffers from a serious weakness on the basic polymer chemistry and essential characteristics of the plastics/polymers. Current available data do not support the degradation of covalent carbon-carbon bonds as a significant reaction in highly polymerized plastics and, at the same time, there is very little information on the mechanisms or biochemical reactions responsible for the claim degradation. In addition, plasticizers in the plastics and their impact on the exposed organisms have not been examined in substantial extent. Plasticizers are leached out from the plastics over time and they can be utilized by indigenous microorganisms, but it is important to know that these plasticizers are endocrine-disrupting chemicals and have more pronounced impact on animals and humans. It is clear that the visible issues of plastics has been focused by and for the public while but the invisible ones deserve good attention for researchers to gain a complete picture and solid scientific knowledge. 

Keywords: Plastics; microplastics; biodegradation; bioremediation; reproductive toxicology; ecotoxicity

Ji-Dong Gu is currently a full professor of the Environmental Engineering, Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and also Israel Institute of Technology concurrently. He obtained his B.Sc from Heilongjiang August First Land reclamation University, M.Sc. from University of Alberta (Canada), and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech (USA). After a brief post-doc at University of Massachusetts – Lowell, he joined Ralph Mitchell’s Laboratory at Harvard University for 6 years before taking a faculty position at The University of Hong Kong for more than 21 years. After resigning from the University in Hong Kong, he started his new full-time position with Guangdong Technion - Guangdong Israel Institute of Technology in 2020.

His recent research interest includes: 1) carbon and nitrogen cycling, including anaerobic ammonium oxidation and nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation; 2) oil field microbiology for enhanced oil recovery and pollution remediation; and 3) microbiology of cultural heritage. 

His h-index is 95, i10-index 502, and total citations of 33,100 (GoogleScholar). He has been the world top 1% scientists by WoS since 2013. He has published in the areas of applied and environmental microbiology and toxicology with more than 500 refereed scientific journal papers, 42 book chapters. He co-edited a book with Ralph Mitchell on ‘Environmental Microbiology’ (2nd ed, John Wiley-Blackwell. 2010). In the Environmental Science and Engineering category, he is ranked the top scientists and highly cited in China.

He is the editor-in-chief for International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation (2015– ). 

He also serves as International Board Member of International Society for Subsurface Microbiology (2016– ); and International Board Member, International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation Society.

Key Identifier:

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7082-9784 

GoogleSchilar: scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=7hrvvZYAAAAJ

ResearcherID: D-3086-2009

Scopus Author ID: 7403129601

HKU ResearcherPage: rp00701