Abstract:
Synthetic plastic has the disadvantage of being difficult to decompose in nature,
causing environmental problems. To overcome the problem of accumulation of
plastic waste, the use of environmentally friendly plastics (bioplastics) is one
solution. Bioplastics are made from natural polymers such as starch, cellulose, and
fats. Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) is one of the building blocks of bioplastics.
PHA is the result of microbial metabolism produced by bacteria as a response to
an unbalanced environment. Bacteria that have the ability to produce PHA can be
isolated from various sources such as industrial waste, agricultural waste and soil.
This study aims to isolate PHA-producing bacteria from peat soil, Bengkalis, Riau
and optimize PHA production through modification of production media. Peat soil
samples were taken from six types of locations with four replications, namely,
industrial plantation forest, restoration land, rubber plantation, secondary forest,
oil palm plantation and burnt land. Isolation was carried out using the spread plate
method and qualitative selection of PHA-producing bacteria was carried out using
suddan black dye. A total of 10 bacterial isolates had a high ability to produce
PHA which was indicated by the black color absorption. The highest
accumulation of PHA was 46.47% of HS4_8 isolates using 50% LCPKS enriched
medium.
