Plastic-eating bacteria?
https://youtu.be/rtZs-MPFcHo
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@lordalveric I have considered the whole "lets invent a plastic eating bacteria" before.. and while its a neat idea and really would solve some waste problems world wide... imagine the consequences of plastic rot.. half the reason we use plastic is specifically so it cant rot. Imagine if we suddently changed that property and all the plastic in the world started to rot away even when its still in use.
@freemo At least we'll have the option, and the research looks promising. They are synthesizing the enzyme without the bacteria, putting it more under our control.
So the plastic rot scenario is unlikely.
@lordalveric We dont have the option though. Bacteria isnt something we can pick and choose where it goes. You start applying plastic eating bacteria on waste at a large scale, then it gets intot he environment, you dont get the choice anymore.
We would have no more of an "option" than we would when our meat rots.
@freemo Did you watch the video? They are engineering this enzyme without the use of bacteria. They needed to boost its degradation factor tremendously over the bacteria to make it useful.
The bacteria were discovered accidentally by Japanese scientists, so it is already out in the wild.
