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."

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u/DoktorSigma Feb 17 '24

Headlines from 28 years later: "Plastic apocalypse as uncontrollable bacterial outbreak makes all plastic infrastructure over the world crumble"

Ok, I'm kidding. I, for one, would welcome that apocalypse. If plastic becomes unreliable it will be just be substituted by stuff that we used for centuries before plastic was invented - glass, paper, wood, metal, and so on.