(CNN) Plastic products made with polyurethane, a synthetic chemical compound, typically end up buried in a landfill.

Now scientists discovered a strain of bacteria, the first of its kind, that can degrade the harmful compounds in polyurethane products -- a positive step toward reducing the amount of plastic pollution in the environment.

The findings were published last week in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology

A group of German researchers identified the bacterium Pseudomonas putida in the soil of a site covered in plastic waste. It fed on polyurethane diol, which is usually applied to materials to protect them from corrosion.

"The bacteria can use these compounds as a sole source of carbon, nitrogen and energy," said Hermann Heipieper, study author and senior scientist at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, in a statement to the journal. "This finding represents an important step in being able to reuse hard-to-recycle (polyurethane) products."

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