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Does this mean someone somewhere is kicking off research on a material resistant to these microbes?
by yalogin 5y ago
Does this mean someone somewhere is kicking off research on a material resistant to these microbes?
- Victerius 5y ago... please no. Isn't there enough plastic pollution already.
- bcrosby95 5y agoBugs eating through moisture barriers sounds like a bad thing.
- beeboop 5y agoOr plumbing, drainage, electronics, cars, and a million other things
- dclowd9901 5y agoHave you ever worked on an older house or car? Plastic rots, one way or another, and those moisture barriers will have become brittle and useless over time. I don't know what causes this to happen, especially when we keep being told plastic will outlast civilization itself, but my experience is that plastic in usage has a very definitive shelf life. You replace it as you do with anything else that exists. Everything requires maintenance.
- ericbarrett 5y agoYes, plastic degrades mainly through oxidation, water, and UV exposure. The danger is that these kinds of things just embrittle the plastic, causing it to crack, flake and powder into smaller pieces ("chain scission"), which we believe are still endocrinologically significant. True biodegradation would mean the plastic is reduced to base chemicals like CO2.
- ars 5y agoIt already exists, it's called PVC (the chlorine is likely to be a large barrier to bacteria eating it). And most things do not use this plastic, so you don't need to worry.
- swagasaurus-rex 5y agoHow about metals?
- hkt 5y agoProbably - widespread microbial digestion of plastics is a civilization ending event for us, I expect.
- theandrewbailey 5y agoPlastics were hardly used 100 years ago, and civilization was thriving. Going back to that might be difficult, but the world will mostly be the same.