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I strongly suspect that within about 50-100 years something will evolve that can digest all of this plastic. Which will probably cause us as a society to move b

by Aloha 8y ago

I strongly suspect that within about 50-100 years something will evolve that can digest all of this plastic. Which will probably cause us as a society to move back to glass and metal as storage components.

HiroshiSan 8y ago
Why do you strongly suspect this?
- wffurr 8y ago
  No high quality source of hydrocarbons goes unexploited for long.
  - seanalltogether 8y ago
    The carboniferous period lasted 60 million years. We probably have some time to work with.
    - lomnakkus 8y ago
      I think you mean the "biosphere" rather than "we". Modern humans have existed anywhere from 50k-200k years. Just to put the time scales into context. EDIT: Just to clarify: As long as disasters happen slowly enough and there are actually local maxima for the species to evolve "into", everything may be fine for "humans"... but those assumptions may be overly optimistic.
    - wffurr 8y ago
      Locked away in geologically stable layers in a time of cataclysmic climate change. Maybe there's something to that and the oceans will acidify too much for bacteria to evolve to eat the plastic, and there will forever be a "plastic layer" in the geological record to mark this era. I was thinking more that the plastics in question are free-floating in a soluble medium and thus ripe for digestion by an opportunistic microbe.
- wellboy 8y ago
  He kind of has a point. There are mutations in microbes all the time that allow plastic digestion, probably millions every day. Only needs one that really punches through.
  - Xylakant 8y ago
    And then spreads to eat all the plastic food containers in my kitchen.
    - dcbadacd 8y ago
      And we'll create plastics that are plastic-eater resistant...
      - tekchip 8y ago
        Like metal, or various wood fiber based products.
- freehunter 8y ago
  Well for one, bacteria already exists that eats plastic: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6278/1196 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6278/1196 It's not too far fetched to assume this already-existent bacteria could continue to exist and possibly mutate into something more efficient or proliferate to encompass the entire ocean.
  - HiroshiSan 8y ago
    Neat!
  - b1daly 8y ago
    We should genetically engineer this new breed of bacteria and seed the oceans. What could go wrong?
newswriter99 8y ago
"within about 50-100 years" That's how bottlenecks work, but not evolution. No species is going to evolve in the next century which will be able to suddenly break down plastic and turn it into energy/nutrients. The ones that do, mostly bacertium and fungi, were pre-disposed to doing so, and didn't suddenly X-men their way into consuming plastic. As for organisms such as the Chinese mealworm that "eats" plastic bags, jury is still out about whether it's actually chemically converting the plastic or merely biting it into smaller bits.
- pixl97 8y ago
  There is a good chance a species already exists that can break down plastics along with whatever else its actual diet is. We would be giving it an environment to flourish.
- c3534l 8y ago
  > No species is going to evolve in the next century which will be able to suddenly break down plastic and turn it into energy/nutrients. Such a species already exists: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-plastic-munching-bacteria-could-fuel-a-recycling-revolution https://www.sciencealert.com/new-plastic-munching-bacteria-c... There are also bacteria that can break down nylon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria I don't understand why people are so dismissive of ideas that are a simple google search away.
  - sgslo 8y ago
    The sentence after the one you quoted referenced the species that already exist. > The ones that do, mostly bacertium and fungi, were pre-disposed to doing so, and didn't suddenly X-men their way into consuming plastic. Not to be a smartass, but I don't understand why people read a post to the first sentence that upsets them then instantly reply without reading the rest.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - the8472 8y ago
wcoenen 8y ago
Something similar to that happened when fungi evolved the ability to break down lignin. http://feedthedatamonster.com/home/2014/7/11/how-fungi-saved-the-world http://feedthedatamonster.com/home/2014/7/11/how-fungi-saved...
mjevans 8y ago
Dwindling oil reserves might actually cause us to switch to plant based plastics (hopefully engineering (slowly) bio degradable ones) or the above mentioned 100% recyclable streams sooner.
outworlder 8y ago
50 to 100 years is a very short time. For millions of years, nothing had the capability to eat dead plant matter. See the carboniferous period.

by Aloha 8y ago

HiroshiSan 8y ago

Why do you strongly suspect this?

wffurr 8y ago
No high quality source of hydrocarbons goes unexploited for long.
- seanalltogether 8y ago
  The carboniferous period lasted 60 million years. We probably have some time to work with.
  - lomnakkus 8y ago
    I think you mean the "biosphere" rather than "we". Modern humans have existed anywhere from 50k-200k years. Just to put the time scales into context. EDIT: Just to clarify: As long as disasters happen slowly enough and there are actually local maxima for the species to evolve "into", everything may be fine for "humans"... but those assumptions may be overly optimistic.
  - wffurr 8y ago
    Locked away in geologically stable layers in a time of cataclysmic climate change. Maybe there's something to that and the oceans will acidify too much for bacteria to evolve to eat the plastic, and there will forever be a "plastic layer" in the geological record to mark this era. I was thinking more that the plastics in question are free-floating in a soluble medium and thus ripe for digestion by an opportunistic microbe.
wellboy 8y ago
He kind of has a point. There are mutations in microbes all the time that allow plastic digestion, probably millions every day. Only needs one that really punches through.
- Xylakant 8y ago
  And then spreads to eat all the plastic food containers in my kitchen.
  - dcbadacd 8y ago
    And we'll create plastics that are plastic-eater resistant...
    - tekchip 8y ago
      Like metal, or various wood fiber based products.
freehunter 8y ago
Well for one, bacteria already exists that eats plastic: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6278/1196 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6278/1196 It's not too far fetched to assume this already-existent bacteria could continue to exist and possibly mutate into something more efficient or proliferate to encompass the entire ocean.
- HiroshiSan 8y ago
  Neat!
- b1daly 8y ago
  We should genetically engineer this new breed of bacteria and seed the oceans. What could go wrong?

newswriter99 8y ago

"within about 50-100 years" That's how bottlenecks work, but not evolution. No species is going to evolve in the next century which will be able to suddenly break down plastic and turn it into energy/nutrients. The ones that do, mostly bacertium and fungi, were pre-disposed to doing so, and didn't suddenly X-men their way into consuming plastic. As for organisms such as the Chinese mealworm that "eats" plastic bags, jury is still out about whether it's actually chemically converting the plastic or merely biting it into smaller bits.

pixl97 8y ago
There is a good chance a species already exists that can break down plastics along with whatever else its actual diet is. We would be giving it an environment to flourish.
c3534l 8y ago
> No species is going to evolve in the next century which will be able to suddenly break down plastic and turn it into energy/nutrients. Such a species already exists: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-plastic-munching-bacteria-could-fuel-a-recycling-revolution https://www.sciencealert.com/new-plastic-munching-bacteria-c... There are also bacteria that can break down nylon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nylon-eating_bacteria I don't understand why people are so dismissive of ideas that are a simple google search away.
- sgslo 8y ago
  The sentence after the one you quoted referenced the species that already exist. > The ones that do, mostly bacertium and fungi, were pre-disposed to doing so, and didn't suddenly X-men their way into consuming plastic. Not to be a smartass, but I don't understand why people read a post to the first sentence that upsets them then instantly reply without reading the rest.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- the8472 8y ago

wcoenen 8y ago

Something similar to that happened when fungi evolved the ability to break down lignin. http://feedthedatamonster.com/home/2014/7/11/how-fungi-saved-the-world http://feedthedatamonster.com/home/2014/7/11/how-fungi-saved...

mjevans 8y ago

Dwindling oil reserves might actually cause us to switch to plant based plastics (hopefully engineering (slowly) bio degradable ones) or the above mentioned 100% recyclable streams sooner.

outworlder 8y ago

50 to 100 years is a very short time. For millions of years, nothing had the capability to eat dead plant matter. See the carboniferous period.