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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

#171

Post by user3939382 »

lotophage wrote: post #152
dimal wrote: post #135

> Recycling is the most obvious way to cut down on plastic waste. I would think that the most obvious solution is to not use a material that lasts thousands of years for disposable packaging that’s only needed for a few months. Seems like these types of “revolutionary” new processes to make recycling finally work come out every year, and yet nothing changes. I can’t imagine this will be any different. As long as it’s…

Yeah, I've heard that much of the recycling campaigns from the late 80s were actually spearheaded by the plastics industry in what was ultimately a successful attempt to shift blame from the producers to the consumers.

And that a lot of what’s recycled is rejected by industrial manufacturing as unusable and sent to a landfill anyway. I have to admit I don’t know the numbers, but the fact that these issues aren’t more widely discussed makes me suspicious that the popular positive consensus around recycling is the product of marketing and politics which would be par for the course.

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#172

Post by iratewizard »

BariumBlue wrote: post #165
userbinator wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much hope none of it will "come to anything" --- if plastic-eating organisms start becoming widespread, and there is definitely plenty for them to feed on, we'll face a much bigger problem. with the idea that the public will feel better about all the plastic that is being thrown into the environment and landfills. Personally, I don't think it's anywhere as much of a problem as the environmentalists claim it is…

Eh, there's stuff that eats wood but we still build our houses out of it. Paper disintegrates pretty gosh darn easy if you leave it outside but we still use plenty of it. Most steel rusts in the right conditions, including the stuff in infrastructure. I don't think plastic eating bacteria would be as much of a problem as people make it out to be.

We might even form a symbiotic relationship with it. It feeds on the micro-plastic in our blood and we get to live long enough to make the next man-made horror beyond our current comprehension.

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#173

Post by [deleted] »

nomel wrote: post #95
faitswulff wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, good point. Theoretically, a more optimized enzyme might be able to do it at ambient temperatures, which they mention in the article as a target. Assuming the search space for enzyme mutations isn't already exhausted.

> a more optimized enzyme might be able to do it at ambient temperatures Releasing this into the ocean, in any appreciable amount, seems like a very bad idea. I think collection from plastic "hot spots", and then separate processing, would make more sense. I think it's best to reduce the number of foreign chemicals in the environment.

[deleted]

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#174

Post by siver_john »

userbinator wrote: post #159
ThrowITout4321 wrote: post #153

This is BS "could" does not mean "will". We get these types of articles every so often but I've yet to see any of it come to anything. My suspicion is that this research gets amplified by PR firms that service the plastic industry with the idea that the public will feel better about all the plastic that is being thrown into the environment and landfills. Right now the only solution is to minimize plastic use as much…

I very much hope none of it will "come to anything" --- if plastic-eating organisms start becoming widespread, and there is definitely plenty for them to feed on, we'll face a much bigger problem. with the idea that the public will feel better about all the plastic that is being thrown into the environment and landfills. Personally, I don't think it's anywhere as much of a problem as the environmentalists claim it is…

Just for the record enzyme does not mean organism. Enzymes are non-self replicating so the "grey goo" scenario isn't a problem until we introduce them into organisms but then the energy they derive from the plastic must be greater than the rest of the machinery used to turn it into energy/nutrients. And I would be skeptical of that any time soon.

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#175

Post by [deleted] »

ThrowITout4321 wrote: post #153

This is BS "could" does not mean "will". We get these types of articles every so often but I've yet to see any of it come to anything. My suspicion is that this research gets amplified by PR firms that service the plastic industry with the idea that the public will feel better about all the plastic that is being thrown into the environment and landfills. Right now the only solution is to minimize plastic use as much…

[deleted]

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#176

Post by hapiri »

userbinator wrote: post #159
ThrowITout4321 wrote: post #153

This is BS "could" does not mean "will". We get these types of articles every so often but I've yet to see any of it come to anything. My suspicion is that this research gets amplified by PR firms that service the plastic industry with the idea that the public will feel better about all the plastic that is being thrown into the environment and landfills. Right now the only solution is to minimize plastic use as much…

I very much hope none of it will "come to anything" --- if plastic-eating organisms start becoming widespread, and there is definitely plenty for them to feed on, we'll face a much bigger problem. with the idea that the public will feel better about all the plastic that is being thrown into the environment and landfills. Personally, I don't think it's anywhere as much of a problem as the environmentalists claim it is…

The chemical industry have has a much more lengthy history of bad chemicals: PFOA, asbestos, leaded gas, HCFCs... how can we be sure that plastic is not one of these ?

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#177

Post by esprehn »

323 wrote: post #63

Dumb question, but if plastic eating bacteria starts spreading, wouldn't we all be in a lot of trouble? Will car plastic interior start to rot? Will PET soda and water bottles start decomposing in the grocery store, and will they require refrigeration to prevent that? Will our computer keyboards require new materials?

Check out The Andromeda Strain (and movie):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#178

Post by faitswulff »

nomel wrote: post #95
faitswulff wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, good point. Theoretically, a more optimized enzyme might be able to do it at ambient temperatures, which they mention in the article as a target. Assuming the search space for enzyme mutations isn't already exhausted.

> a more optimized enzyme might be able to do it at ambient temperatures Releasing this into the ocean, in any appreciable amount, seems like a very bad idea. I think collection from plastic "hot spots", and then separate processing, would make more sense. I think it's best to reduce the number of foreign chemicals in the environment.

Wastewater treatment might be a good use for it to remove microplastics.

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#179

Post by micromacrofoot »

kingkawn wrote: post #139
dimal wrote: post #135

> Recycling is the most obvious way to cut down on plastic waste. I would think that the most obvious solution is to not use a material that lasts thousands of years for disposable packaging that’s only needed for a few months. Seems like these types of “revolutionary” new processes to make recycling finally work come out every year, and yet nothing changes. I can’t imagine this will be any different. As long as it’s…

Regulation is the way

yeah this seems like something on a scale that's worth regulating, if we stopped now we'd probably still be mitigating the effects 50 years from now

Re: Plastic-eating enzyme could eliminate billions of tons of landfill waste

#180

Post by thfuran »

ars wrote: post #122
thfuran wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't exactly call it noxious, but C02 isn't exactly something we want to be spewing more of. Isn't a landfill full of plastic pretty much just a big pile of captured carbon?

It's captured oil basically, not captured CO2. (Don't say "captured carbon", when you mean "captured co2", because it leads to confusion - do you mean burned or unburned carbon?) And since we are still pumping oil of the ground, leaving a different form of oil (plastic) in the ground doesn't accomplish anything useful.

>do you mean burned or unburned carbon?

I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to draw.

>And since we are still pumping oil of the ground, leaving a different form of oil (plastic) in the ground doesn't accomplish anything useful.

I suspect that overall energy production in the US probably emits less CO2 per kwhr than burning garbage does, so starting to burn garbage for energy would be, in that regard, a net negative. Furthermore, it would likely require moderately significant capital expenditure that could've instead been used for something better.

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