Comment by silasdavis
3 months ago
I've often wondered about this. Does the chemistry imply the energetics of this would be less favourable than other organic decomposition?
This could be bad too I suppose? Pipes and other chemical containment vessels might come under attack.
I think this does mean that plastic things could soon rot. It could be pretty interesting based on how it spreads. Call a remediation company because you noticed the plastic-mold growing in your house somewhere.
"Dammit the TV's rotting!"
I remember reading an old SciFi book many years ago (decades?) about the scenario where a rapid plastic eating bacteria gets into the world.
Wish I could remember the name of it, as I roughly remember the book as being pretty good too. :)
Do you mean the Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton [1] (also a movie) and I seem to remember it being a good watch when I last watched though that might be a good 15 years ago. The idea was novel enough it's stuck with me since and I do often joke with people about it, especially given from what I gather that certain types of funghi can now digest certain types of plastic [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andromeda_Strain
[2] https://www.shroomer.com/mycoremediation-plastic-eating-mush...
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> I think this does mean that plastic things could soon rot.
In the presence of moisture, maybe. The are plenty of microorganisms that can break down wood and paper, yet they can still stay intact for centuries.
Time to invent a type of plastic that's poisonous to these bacteria!
> Is it harmful to humans?
> Not at all! You can definitely trust that my company has studied this in depth. I'm sure it isn't going to make it into everyone's bloodstreams before we learn it's actually terrible.
> before we learn it's actually terrible.
Before you learn it's actually terrible if I may.
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The paper frames this as microorganisms "exploring novel ecological niches." More accurate framing: we accidentally created a massive evolutionary pressure toward undoing one of our primary material technologies. And we can't stop it. Oops?
Polyethylene terephthalate is a little unique. Part of its popularity comes from recycling, because it is "easy" to break down. For other polymers like polystyrene or PVC it's not so easy.
But any plastic is going to be harder to break down than cellulose because life depends on water and plastics are usually hydrophobic. So non-porous things will always break down pretty slowly. Plenty of plants grow in the water, after all, and aren't immediately consumed by bacteria. Microplastics should, in principle, be the first things to go.
Robes are probably a big one as well - in the olden days (before plastics) any ropes you used in the sea would rot fairly quickly. Nowadays that obviously isn't a problem - we have really good fairly cheap robes made of plastic, but maybe in the future it will become a problem again