Next story: Caterpillars die from plastic poisoning :(
Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
41–50 of 329 posts
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#42It makes sense that eventually things would eat plastic.
Lignin (wood) and cellulose are pretty tough to break down, but there are things that eat them.
Plastic fundamentally (chemically) is made of the same stuff as wood, just in a different arrangement of atoms, and releases energy when decomposed. So it seems quite reasonable that there would be things that can eat it.
I think the plastic pollution we are seeing right now is a temporary thing - soon enough there will a large enough population of plastic eaters that it will no longer be a problem.
(We should avoid plastics that have chlorine in them though, except where needed. PVC is the most common example of a plastic like this.)
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably. The primary complaint I've heard about ethylene glycol is that it smells sweet and it's poisonous, so it attracts animals (esp. dogs and cats) and kills them. It's not highly concentrated in windshield washer fluid, but it is in engine coolant, so sometimes people would leave it out and their dog would drink it and die (and the death was awful IIRC due to the way the poison worked). Years ago, there were so…
It kills people too. Kids, adults poisoning others (or themselves). Bad stuff, better keep it locked away.
Kills people = bad stuff, keep it locked away is a pretty dangerous, slippery slope.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#44I am skeptical that any sort of bacteria/insect based plastic decomposition project will address the problems with plastic waste.
The biggest problem with plastic is not with the products that make it into the landfill, where bacteria could be used. The problem is with what happens when they don't make it into a landfill, and they end up as basically permanent pollutants in the water.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The history of science is full of such accidents, the discovery Penicillin being one of the most famous. http://www.kidsdiscover.com/quick-reads/penicillin-found-fun...
Maybe the antithesis to the discovery of antibiotics is the mostly accidental discovery of Tabun: "In January 1937, Schrader observed the effects of nerve agents on human beings first-hand when a drop of tabun spilled onto a lab bench." (Wikipedia) I think that one might stand out somewhat since I'd expect most accidental advances to be helpful to humanity. Or maybe I'm just an optimist. :)
Scientists that voluntarily work to bring such stuff in the world are amongst the people I least respect. It's one thing to be dumb, quite another to be extraordinarily gifted and to use that gift to do something which has no upside at all and plenty of downside. Exposing them to their own creations would be poetic justice.
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
We've been building things out of wood for a long time and wood is a food source to plenty of organisms. If that was going to make civilization collapse, it wouldn't have risen in the first place.
>"If a single enzyme is responsible for this chemical process, its reproduction on a large scale using biotechnological methods should be achievable" If they're right about the enzyme then the threat is possible. It's different from organisms that eat wood because we are pretty good at mass producing stuff.
We're pretty good at mass producing bombs. Hasn't ended civilization yet. Dropping a bunch of plastic eating enzymes won't be more effective...
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
The history of science is full of such accidents, the discovery Penicillin being one of the most famous. http://www.kidsdiscover.com/quick-reads/penicillin-found-fun...
Maybe the antithesis to the discovery of antibiotics is the mostly accidental discovery of Tabun: "In January 1937, Schrader observed the effects of nerve agents on human beings first-hand when a drop of tabun spilled onto a lab bench." (Wikipedia) I think that one might stand out somewhat since I'd expect most accidental advances to be helpful to humanity. Or maybe I'm just an optimist. :)
Have a link? I'm not seeing what you're seeing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabun_(nerve_agent)
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#48This is the best news I've heard all month!
The levels of abraded plastic in our water have gone up steadily over the past half century. While not so much of an immediate threat as rising CO2 levels, it's still something we'll have to contend with eventually. Not to mention the eyesore that is plastic waste. If they can make this work at industrial scale it will really be something!
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#49I am skeptical that any sort of bacteria/insect based plastic decomposition project will address the problems with plastic waste. The biggest problem with plastic is not with the products that make it into the landfill, where bacteria could be used. The problem is with what happens when they don't make it into a landfill, and they end up as basically permanent pollutants in the water.
I, for one, have never understood the problem with landfills. There's tons of unused space left, and landfills take up a tiny fraction of that. Who cares if we make a trash hill somewhere and styrofoam sits there for a million years?
Re: Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
It kills people too. Kids, adults poisoning others (or themselves). Bad stuff, better keep it locked away.
Kills people = bad stuff, keep it locked away is a pretty dangerous, slippery slope.
How so? Sweet smelling liquids that kill and children are not compatible in the same space. That's a pretty good reason to keep your various cleaning stuff out of the reach of toddlers whose need to experiment exceeds their capability to understand.