Question

Why are some substance bio-degradable and other non-bio-degradable?

Answer 1

Substances that are broken down by biological processes are said to be biodegradable. In our environment, many of the substances are broken easily by decomposers (bacteria and fungi) as they possess specific enzymes for such activity. However, there are other substances also which are not broken down in this manner and are known as non-biodegradable substances. Since these substances are not degraded by bacteria and fungi, so they persist for a long time. These non-biodegradable substances will be acted upon by physical processes like heat and pressure.

Answer 2

Biodegradable substances have organic content in them which the scavengers present in environment can use and thus they can be broken down by bacteria and fungi... but the non biodegradable substances are synthetic and cannot be used by the bacteria and fungi so they are degraded through heat etc and they are persist longer in our environment..