Biodegradation

Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. In contrast to biodegradation, phytodegradation, which has few applications, relies on green plants to effect the degradation.

In practice, almost all chemical compounds and materials are subject to biodegradation, the limiting element being time. Vegetables may degrade within days, whereas some plastics can take a lot of time to degrade. A standard for biodegradability used by the European Union is that greater than 90% of the original material must be converted into CO₂, water, and minerals by biological processes within 6 months. Biodegradation does not apply to elements; thus heavy metal pollutants do not biodegrade.