I understand that the pits, that are the foundation of landfills, are lined with impermeable plastic sheets. Their purpose is to avoid ground-water contamination. So, there may be some redesign of landfills required before this technology can succeed.
Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
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Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#12So, uh, what are the CO2 emissions like on eating that much sequestered carbon?
Or rather, how will governments and NGOs manage the problem (and by extension, the economy) if someone invents a technology that actually just solves it?
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#13So, uh, what are the CO2 emissions like on eating that much sequestered carbon?
What would be really cool is if we got something that could eat plastic and produce as a waste product some environmentally neutral substance like (say) some kind of alcohol. Is there anything like that on the horizon?
Please define environmentally neutral. Because alcohol will just oxidize into water and CO2.
Do you want to just sequester the Carbon? Something very environmentally neutral would be .... plastic. Anything biodegradable would eventually become CO2 and water.
Best option is to burn it and capture the energy for a useful purpose, instead of letting that energy be wasted when it biodegrades.
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#14Plastic waste should be burned for heat and/or electricity in an incinerator. Every other usage/disposal method seems like a waste to me. Instead of burning fossil fuels directly, we get much more value from them if we first turn it into some plastic product, and only then burn it. And as long as we keep burning fossil fuels for heat and power, let's not wate out attention on recycling (downcycling actually) plastics…
Doesn't burning plastic produce large amounts of toxic off gassing?
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#15I wonder what the potential harm to infrastructure would be if this bacteria were to escape landfills / remediation sites and happen to get into places where PET is used in something important.
Not that I'm against finding ways to _actually_ recycle or break-down plastics, just it seems like something we need a microscope to see might be hard to keep track of.
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#16what are the biproducts?
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#17I wonder what the potential harm to infrastructure would be if this bacteria were to escape landfills / remediation sites and happen to get into places where PET is used in something important. Not that I'm against finding ways to _actually_ recycle or break-down plastics, just it seems like something we need a microscope to see might be hard to keep track of.
Manufacturers will love that their products break down and require replacing more often
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
Exactly. Everyone thinks there will be black smoke, but actually plastic burns very clean in a proper incinerator.
They're dirtier than natural gas power plants, however. (and the pollution that they do create can be particularly nasty) We're better off in terms of emissions-per-watt by burying the plastic and using natural gas instead.
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#19I understand that the pits, that are the foundation of landfills, are lined with impermeable plastic sheets. Their purpose is to avoid ground-water contamination. So, there may be some redesign of landfills required before this technology can succeed.
I was thinking the same. Worst case scenario with a solution like this one is that these organisms get into the wild, gain more mutations, and then rapidly release a large volume of carbon, currently sequestered as plastic, into the atmosphere. Or, plastic-tropic organisms used as a weapon, sprayed over cities, etc.
Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste
#20Plastic waste should be burned for heat and/or electricity in an incinerator. Every other usage/disposal method seems like a waste to me. Instead of burning fossil fuels directly, we get much more value from them if we first turn it into some plastic product, and only then burn it. And as long as we keep burning fossil fuels for heat and power, let's not wate out attention on recycling (downcycling actually) plastics…
Doesn't burning plastic produce large amounts of toxic off gassing?
Yes , it does. Burning plastic without somehow accounting for that is a terrible idea.