Escalated production of plastic, their worldwide distribution and persistent nature finally results into their environmental accumulation causing severe threats to the ecological environment and biotic health. Thus, development of suitable measurements for environmental remediation of plastic may be an urgent issue in this plastic age. Some recent reviews have categorized the microbial species able to degrade different plastic polymers and the different factors effecting bio-degradation of plastic are poorly understood. This review comprehensively discusses bio-degradation of traditional and biodegradable plastic polymers both in natural and biological environment (gut microbes and fungi) to understand different factors regulating their degradation, and also shows how degradation of plastic polymers under abiotic factors influence subsequent biological degradation. Different physicochemical modifications like - breaking large polymers into small fragments by pre-treatment, functional groups enrichment, identifying potent microbial species (consortia) and engineering microbial enzymes might be crucial for bio-degradations of plastic. Effects of micro/nanoplastic and other chemical intermediates, formed during the bio-degradation of plastic, on species composition, abundance, growth, metabolism and enzymatic systems of microbes involved in the bio-degradation of plastic should be determined in future research.

塑料产量的增加、它们的全球分布和持久性最终导致它们的环境积累，从而对生态环境和生物健康造成严重威胁。因此，在这个塑料时代，开发合适的塑料环境修复措施可能是一个紧迫的问题。最近的一些评论对能够降解不同塑料聚合物的微生物种类进行了分类，并且对影响塑料生物降解的不同因素知之甚少。本综述全面讨论了传统和可生物降解塑料聚合物在自然和生物环境（肠道微生物和真菌）中的生物降解，以了解调节其降解的不同因素，还展示了塑料聚合物在非生物因素下的降解如何影响随后的生物降解。不同的物理化学修饰，如通过预处理、功能组富集、识别有效微生物物种（聚生体）和工程微生物酶将大聚合物分解成小碎片，可能对塑料的生物降解至关重要。在塑料生物降解过程中形成的微/纳米塑料和其他化学中间体对塑料生物降解中涉及的微生物的物种组成、丰度、生长、代谢和酶系统的影响应在未来的研究中确定。识别有效的微生物物种（聚生体）和工程微生物酶可能对塑料的生物降解至关重要。在塑料生物降解过程中形成的微/纳米塑料和其他化学中间体对塑料生物降解中涉及的微生物的物种组成、丰度、生长、代谢和酶系统的影响应在未来的研究中确定。识别有效的微生物物种（聚生体）和工程微生物酶可能对塑料的生物降解至关重要。在塑料生物降解过程中形成的微/纳米塑料和其他化学中间体对塑料生物降解中涉及的微生物的物种组成、丰度、生长、代谢和酶系统的影响应在未来的研究中确定。