There are also caterpillars that eat plastic: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-00593-y
Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
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Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#12Is anyone else concerned about the effects this could have if it managed to get out of containment and into the wild? A self-replicating bacteria that eats plastics sounds like a potentially catastrophic event, considering how much we use them in day to day life.
I used to think about that, but there really isn't that much plastic to sustain something like that. I know it might seem like there is tons and tons of plastic around and blowing in the wind and in our oceans, but the amount needed for a "infection" of this microbe to take hold would need to be many orders of magnitude higher.
It's not the mass of plastic, but the surface area. Microplastics have very high surface area to mass ratio, so large numbers of microbes have access to them. I expect to see rotting plastics in my lifetime. But this isn't necessarily a disaster. Many uses (e.g. food packaging) are still possible with biodegradable plastics, and for critical things like medical equipment we have fluorinated plastics, which are very resistant to anything a microbe could do. For everything else we'll just have to revert to wood and metal. This will mean paying more attention to repair and maintenance, and less disposable products.
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#13Is anyone else concerned about the effects this could have if it managed to get out of containment and into the wild? A self-replicating bacteria that eats plastics sounds like a potentially catastrophic event, considering how much we use them in day to day life.
I used to think about that, but there really isn't that much plastic to sustain something like that. I know it might seem like there is tons and tons of plastic around and blowing in the wind and in our oceans, but the amount needed for a "infection" of this microbe to take hold would need to be many orders of magnitude higher.
You don't have to see it, for microbes to find it. We are aware that those tiny spheres of plastic made for facial scrubs, are now everywhere including Antarctica, right? So a microbe that can eat that, will find ready food everywhere, on every continent?
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you bothered to actually read the article, you'd see that this is a microbe that already exists in the wild.
I imagine the plan is to engineer it to increase its potency. It's clearly not at a dangerous/critical point in its current form.
Extremely rapidly degrading plastics would still be a better situation than extremely slowly degrading plastics.
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#15Guess they haven't read some science fiction classics :)
Mutant 59 The Plastic Eater Book by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#16How is this different from the products currently developed by companies like Carbios[1] ? I'm a totally ignorant in physics and chemistry (except from what I've studied at school) so excuse my genuine question. [1] https://carbios.fr/en/
Carbios looks like a product. This is essentially a microorganism that feeds on plastics.
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#17Is anyone else concerned about the effects this could have if it managed to get out of containment and into the wild? A self-replicating bacteria that eats plastics sounds like a potentially catastrophic event, considering how much we use them in day to day life.
Wood is easily degradable under the right conditions, but that isn’t a major problem for us. I’m almost certain, for example, that 99% of plastic in use today is in environments that are too dry for bacteria.
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#18Is anyone else concerned about the effects this could have if it managed to get out of containment and into the wild? A self-replicating bacteria that eats plastics sounds like a potentially catastrophic event, considering how much we use them in day to day life.
If you bothered to actually read the article, you'd see that this is a microbe that already exists in the wild.
It might have been better to say, “In the article, they say that this is a microbe that already exists in the wild.”
Your words make you sound rude, though you may not have meant to be.
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#19Is anyone else concerned about the effects this could have if it managed to get out of containment and into the wild? A self-replicating bacteria that eats plastics sounds like a potentially catastrophic event, considering how much we use them in day to day life.
If you bothered to actually read the article, you'd see that this is a microbe that already exists in the wild.
Don't assume someone hasn't read the article. It currently exists in the wild but states only that scientists "managed to isolate a bacterium", indicating that it is not abundant and likely not capable of working at a large scale. The obvious question of "what happens when [the industrial version of] this gets out" is a reasonable one that the article doesn't even address.
Re: Scientists identify microbe that could help degrade polyurethane-based plastics
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you bothered to actually read the article, you'd see that this is a microbe that already exists in the wild.
It might have been better to say, “In the article, they say that this is a microbe that already exists in the wild.” Your words make you sound rude, though you may not have meant to be.
Thank you, I'm quite aware that it made me sound rude.
I don't think that hypothetical scare-mongering is very useful in this context. Especially not when it risks mis-representing what the article was actually about. Then it just contributes to the kind of information noise you can find many other places on the internet.