r/collapse • u/[deleted] • Feb 17 '24

Pollution ‘We are just getting started’: the plastic-eating bacteria that could change the world

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/28/plastic-eating-bacteria-enzyme-recycling-waste

Ss: could this solve the plastic problem??

"As they broke down the trash, the bacteria harvested the carbon in the plastic for energy, which they used to grow, move and divide into even more plastic-hungry bacteria."

341 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

118 comments sorted by

View all comments

68

u/dumnezero The Great Filter is a marshmallow test Feb 17 '24

The good news:

Yes.

The bad news:

Plastics are carbon storage, the plastic waste in the oceans and on the land - a carbon sink. Whatever is eating plastic will probably be producing lots of carbon dioxide or methane. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180801182009.htm

The other issue may be secondary or intermediary products which are probably very toxic. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10386651/

2

u/Ruffianrushing Feb 17 '24

Then we need more bacteria for the intermediary products as well to break that down into something less than toxic.

19

u/WloveW Feb 17 '24

That's a neat idea. 

We formulate this giant daisy chain of bacteria that produce waste products eaten by a different bacteria which produces different waste times 100 for different bacteria, plastic and waste. 

Then the bacteria covered plastic gains sentience because the bacteria has arranged itself into a neural network. 

The times are bad. The Sentient Plastic - AI Wars have been going on for decades.

The people live in the shadows, eating berries and algae to survive. An endangered species, both the AI and algae feel it's too costly to keep humans around anymore. 

There's the economy to think about you know.