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As programmers we are always attuned to thinking about the edge cases and endgames, so I wonder: Would be possible that such a fungus proliferated into a sort
by simonsarris 15y ago
As programmers we are always attuned to thinking about the edge cases and endgames, so I wonder:
Would be possible that such a fungus proliferated into a sort of "termite for plastic", feeding on plastic piping (in houses or cars maybe) and the like.
Of course house owners already deal with mold so I suppose this would just be another one.
The article suggests introducing it into landfills to eat the plastic. Kudzu was introduced to America to control soil erosion. The invasive vine now spreads at a rate of 150,000 acres a year, so it certainly accomplished goal A.
- samstave 15y ago>The invasive vine now spreads at a rate 150,000 acres [per what] 150K acres [per year]? or per what metric.
- jluan 15y agoI think this could be a good thing even if it did occur. We will be forced to significantly curtail our dependence on petroleum as a result.
- ars 15y agoNo, quite the opposite. We use plastic because it uses the _least_ petroleum of all structural materials. If not for plastic we would have to use wood or metal, and both would take FAR more energy to work with and ship.
- VMG 15y agoThe article says that the fungus digests polyurethane - maybe if the fungus is focused on one type of plastic that will only be used for disposable products, the problem can be avoided?
- ars 15y agoPlastic pipes are not made from polyurethane. Virtually nothing structural is made from polyurethane, so we are safe even if it proliferated. Polyurethane is mainly used for foams, coatings and sealants. It's common to lump all plastic together, but they are actually VERY different and things that will destroy one type will have no effect on another.
- jerf 15y agoThe ability of bacteria to consume and destroy infrastructure is bounded by energy and resource considerations. Observe that we use wood for structures all the time, a material that can be consumed by any number of very common bacteria that we don't need to hypothesize about, yet properly cared-for wood can last hundreds of years.
- m_for_monkey 15y agoTrue, but we didn't care for plastic the same way, because we didn't need to. Until now. It's not the end of the world, of course, but we should prepare for this problem.
- nsedlet 15y agoThe article is scant on details, but it does say that researchers want to use the enzyme extracted from the fungus to break down plastics, not introduce the fungus itself to our piles of garbage. This makes it a bit different from the case of the Kudzu vine.
- andrewflnr 15y agoIt does mention the bacteria's anaerobic metabolism as an advantage, allowing it to live deep in landfills.
- JonnieCache 15y ago>Kudzu In europe we have a similar problem with japanese knotweed. In the UK it's classed as "controlled waste" and has to be disposed of using chemicals. It's illegal to wilfully spread it. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Japanese_knotweed https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Japanese_knot...