Comment by silasdavis
5 hours 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.
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
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!"
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.
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.