5 ms·

A startup selling probiotics containing plastic-eating bacteria, anyone?

by mckirk 4y ago

moffkalast 4y ago
As long as you don't spill any and wake up tomorrow with all the plastic in your house eaten.
- yetihehe 4y ago
  1. Make plastic baby potties. 2. Sell baby food with "probiotic bacteria guarding babies internally against plastic pollution". 3. Profit.
- fsflover 4y ago
  Who cares about externalities of your business today? /s
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
  Interestingly a friend of mine was discussing this with me yesterday and proposed that such a bacteria, if prolific, would be one of the more appealing causes of the end of modern civilization.
  - ephbit 4y ago
    Not gonna happen. Why? Because AFAIK all life on earth uses water as a solvent. Unless your plastic is constantly/regularly exposed to water, bacteria will have almost no chance of catabolizing it.
thejackgoode 4y ago
I wonder how much evolution pressure you must exert onto a living thing for it to start consuming something as complex as plastic. And how many generations past time they are not in the lab anymore they figure out there’s simpler solutions to nutrition, especially in the gut.
- ben-schaaf 4y ago
  Not having any competition for a food source is a very strong pressure, so much so that multiple plastic eating bacteria have already been discovered.
- Qem 4y ago
  If we consider lignin as the first plastic (not man-made), it took about 60 million years. See https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-fantastically-strange-origin-of-most-coal-on-earth https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-fanta...
- andai 4y ago
  There was a story on HN today about a plastic-eating enzyme: >Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering and College of Natural Sciences used a machine learning model to generate novel mutations to a natural enzyme called PETase that allows bacteria to degrade PET plastics. The model predicts which mutations in these enzymes would accomplish the goal of quickly depolymerizing post-consumer waste plastic at low temperatures. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31427011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31427011 Maybe one of the human gut bacteria could be modified to also produce this enzyme? Though presumably it would be outcompeted by the natural variant (assuming dissolving plastic confers it no advantage). Also, I have to wonder if the monomers are more harmful than the plastic? Being smaller particles they might perhaps end up in the bloodstream?
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    > Maybe one of the human gut bacteria could be modified to also produce this enzyme? Fantastic, now I can not only eat the food, but also the packaging! Can we get one for cellulose too? Then we can eat pizza while it's still in the box.
    - sp332 4y ago
      You can, there are cellulase enzymes sold for human consumption. I don't know how much cellulose you'd be able to eat in one sitting, though. Cellulase is pretty slow.

A startup selling probiotics containing plastic-eating bacteria, anyone?

by mckirk 4y ago

A startup selling probiotics containing plastic-eating bacteria, anyone?

moffkalast 4y ago

As long as you don't spill any and wake up tomorrow with all the plastic in your house eaten.

yetihehe 4y ago
1. Make plastic baby potties. 2. Sell baby food with "probiotic bacteria guarding babies internally against plastic pollution". 3. Profit.
fsflover 4y ago
Who cares about externalities of your business today? /s
AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
Interestingly a friend of mine was discussing this with me yesterday and proposed that such a bacteria, if prolific, would be one of the more appealing causes of the end of modern civilization.
- ephbit 4y ago
  Not gonna happen. Why? Because AFAIK all life on earth uses water as a solvent. Unless your plastic is constantly/regularly exposed to water, bacteria will have almost no chance of catabolizing it.

thejackgoode 4y ago

I wonder how much evolution pressure you must exert onto a living thing for it to start consuming something as complex as plastic. And how many generations past time they are not in the lab anymore they figure out there’s simpler solutions to nutrition, especially in the gut.

ben-schaaf 4y ago
Not having any competition for a food source is a very strong pressure, so much so that multiple plastic eating bacteria have already been discovered.
Qem 4y ago
If we consider lignin as the first plastic (not man-made), it took about 60 million years. See https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-fantastically-strange-origin-of-most-coal-on-earth https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-fanta...
andai 4y ago
There was a story on HN today about a plastic-eating enzyme: >Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering and College of Natural Sciences used a machine learning model to generate novel mutations to a natural enzyme called PETase that allows bacteria to degrade PET plastics. The model predicts which mutations in these enzymes would accomplish the goal of quickly depolymerizing post-consumer waste plastic at low temperatures. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31427011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31427011 Maybe one of the human gut bacteria could be modified to also produce this enzyme? Though presumably it would be outcompeted by the natural variant (assuming dissolving plastic confers it no advantage). Also, I have to wonder if the monomers are more harmful than the plastic? Being smaller particles they might perhaps end up in the bloodstream?
- moffkalast 4y ago
  > Maybe one of the human gut bacteria could be modified to also produce this enzyme? Fantastic, now I can not only eat the food, but also the packaging! Can we get one for cellulose too? Then we can eat pizza while it's still in the box.
  - sp332 4y ago
    You can, there are cellulase enzymes sold for human consumption. I don't know how much cellulose you'd be able to eat in one sitting, though. Cellulase is pretty slow.