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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

#251

Post by limaoscarjuliet »

fritztastic wrote: post #225

The US sends millions of tons of trash to China, India, and other places. Perhaps it would be better for places to implement local sorting (glass, plastic, paper, etc.) and composting- as many other nations do as opposed to disposing of all trash in the same containers and shipping the problem off for someone else to deal with. But even better would be to generate less trash in the first place or at least have an att…

Plastics are extremely good on the account of features and price. As such they are difficult to replace. I want to bet we would create bigger negative impact to environment due to additional spoiled food alone if it was not for plastics.

Recycling is hard but we need to tackle it. Enzymes seem like a good direction - dissolve plastics to chemicals that can be re-processed and re-purposed.

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

#252

Post by andrepd »

Cryptoclysm wrote: post #234
fritztastic wrote: post #225

The US sends millions of tons of trash to China, India, and other places. Perhaps it would be better for places to implement local sorting (glass, plastic, paper, etc.) and composting- as many other nations do as opposed to disposing of all trash in the same containers and shipping the problem off for someone else to deal with. But even better would be to generate less trash in the first place or at least have an att…

It's easy to reduce problems down to an exclusive-or choice, but in reality we need to use all our cards at the same time to look after our planet. Of course we should be reducing plastic waste, and at least where I live, I've seen a big push for the reduction of of single use plastics, both through legislation, savvy consumers and responsible supermarkets. While the biologists work on plastic-eating enzymes, product…

> at least where I live, I've seen a big push for the reduction of of single use plastics, both through legislation, savvy consumers and responsible supermarkets

Have we? Or have we just seen campaigns and legislation against plastic straws and supermarket bags, which amounts to mere virtue signalling and greenwashing by corporations and governments?

We need to do much better than ban plastic straws and advertise how we've saved the world. Properly pricing in externalities onto the price of single use plastics would probably go a long way to motivate the market to give a shit.

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

#253

Post by bluSCALE4 »

This is cool and all but I really worry about this going out of control. Just like trees had nothing to eat them, right now, plastics don't either. All of our infrastructure relies on plastic so if that suddenly starting getting compromised, we'd be royally screwed.

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

#254

Post by Melting_Harps »

ipaddr wrote: post #191
hajile wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real threat is the nearly 1 trillion tons of toxic waste we're racking up PER YEAR. It's the most lethal stuff this planet has ever encountered. If the CO2 levels spike, life on the planet (including many or maybe even most humans) will survive. If you look at historic levels, they were hundreds of times higher and the planet was the greenest it has ever been. If/when that toxic waste leaks out and starts killing…

The area around Chernobyl is very green and many animals live there. Things survive..

> The area around Chernobyl is very green and many animals live there. Things survive..

Only if you're talking about Putin's Little Green Men, in which case most were last seen heading to their deathbed in Belarus after having exposed themselves to deadly levels radiation after occupying the area and trenching it, to the total dismay of local Ukrainians and Plant workers!

Life does indeed find a way, but not in the way most think.

> In a way radioactivity is one of the easiest contaminants to deal...

What an absurd statement, if that were the case you'd go live and work in Fukushima and take advantage of all the open area and low cost real estate, and all the plentiful food that comes from that region.

Radiation to this day still hasn't been cleaned up in Chernobyl, which happened almost 40 years ago, and an Evacuation Zone is still in place.

And by the way their is an ongoing fire in the area as we speak that is cause for concern [0].

0: https://www.republicworld.com/world-news/russia-ukraine-cris...

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

#255

Post by antupis »

andrepd wrote: post #252
Cryptoclysm wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to reduce problems down to an exclusive-or choice, but in reality we need to use all our cards at the same time to look after our planet. Of course we should be reducing plastic waste, and at least where I live, I've seen a big push for the reduction of of single use plastics, both through legislation, savvy consumers and responsible supermarkets. While the biologists work on plastic-eating enzymes, product…

> at least where I live, I've seen a big push for the reduction of of single use plastics, both through legislation, savvy consumers and responsible supermarkets Have we? Or have we just seen campaigns and legislation against plastic straws and supermarket bags, which amounts to mere virtue signalling and greenwashing by corporations and governments? We need to do much better than ban plastic straws and advertise how…

Those non plastic straws are just horrible, EU ban is just punishing customers.

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

#256

Post by mrjin »

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…

Agree. Also recycling plastics was mostly a lie. I used to think that small triangular icon with a number in it on plastic containers meant it can be recycled as it looks almost exactly the same with the recycling icon. It turned out I was too naive. Those icons were actually called Resin Identification Code or RIC, which actually have nothing to do with recycling but rather to make you think it can be recycled. The dire fact is that it's uneconomical to recycle most of the plastics, especially those tiny plastic pieces, i.e. bottle caps. Since it's cost more by using recycled plastics, you would see some genius solution by exporting plastics to other countries like China. Now China has realized that and soon will the other countries. So the plastics waste exporting practice is about to come to its end. But before that, I don't see why they would stop using plastics as they are really cheap and versatile.

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

#258

Post by AngryData »

If our plan is to turn it into gas and CO2, why not burn it and get some energy out of it first? Degrading plastic sitting out in nature would be good because it removes plastic from the environment, but degrading the plastic in landfills removes carbon from the landfill, which can be capped and contained, and moves it into the air where carbon sequestering takes even more energy.

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

#259

Post by maccolgan »

TameAntelope wrote: post #198
Auracle wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sperm counts have been dropping for a long time (50%-60% over the past 50 years) without stopping, and plasticizers are the suspected culprit. It's incredible how many people need to do IVF now. I would argue that might be the most imminent threat but nobody seems to care.

People should have fewer kids anyway, I see this as an absolute win.

Why yes, just commit demographic suicide à la Japan.

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

#260

Post by michaelmrose »

indecisive_user wrote: post #235
michaelmrose wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make a disposable plastic container cost an extra dollar paid at time of manufacture. Double the cost every year. We will be 100% migrated by the end of 2023.

Not that simple. Something would have to replace all those plastic containers, and it might not be any better. Similar to banning plastic bags, we could replace all our disposable water bottles with higher quality *non* disposable plastic bottles. It would be slightly more expensive for companies to produce, but drastically cheaper than paying the proposed tax. Consumers may or may not treat them as disposable anyway…

The obvious alternative is glass. Although it might take a vary long time to degrade its less of a problem if it doesn't.
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