5 ms·

Microbes discovered that can digest plastics at low temperatures

12 points by sandebert 3y ago

JoachimS 3y ago
I'm curious to what is the output from the digestion - apart from more microbes.
sytelus 3y ago
For past two decades, this news shows up every year as if some new ground breaking discovery is made. We have seen no impact of any kind so far. It seems some research group releases this to media whenever they are due to apply for funding.
- arbitrandomuser 3y ago
  It's also kind of sad , for all of human history we never had this wonder material like plastic , light , strong , moldable , cheap and very importantly resistant to chemicals , pests and microbial destruction and in the few decades that we have had it we are scrambling to look for bacteria that will digest them because we over did it .
- montalbano 3y ago
  This is newsworthy because the bacteria can function at lower temperatures (15 C) than previous bacteria discovered.
- jaclaz 3y ago
  I have no idea of the actual data, but I believe that percentage in waste plastics of those kinds (PE+PUR+PBAT+PLA) are something like: 95.0% PE 3.9% PUR 1.1% PBAT+PLA so, even if these newly found microbes are effective and come into use they probably won't make in practice much a change, and - as you say - every year it comes out some article about research on these microbes (including some with potential for "eating" PE) but no news about them being used industrially.
parasti 3y ago
This is the start of a sci-fi book I read many years ago, but I can't remember the name of it.
- lasercat 3y ago
  Ill Wind by Kevin J. Anderson?
- rasz 3y ago
  "...et in pulverem reverteri", a short story by Janusz Zajdel (up there with Lem of Solaris fame) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel TLDR: Someone invents catalyst able to encode any material with programmable expiry date. Every country adopts it to ensure steady employment across planet. Pants? 3 months and revert back to dust, wrist watch? 1 year, car? 2 years, etc. Can only find Polish copy https://web.archive.org/web/20170722210628/http://zajdel.dzaba.com/zajdel/etin.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20170722210628/http://zajdel.dza... google translate doesnt like this particular web.archive link so you would have to manually copy text to translate
- RecycledEle 3y ago
  Was this how Ring World fell? A recycling bacteria got out of control and ate the infrastructure and the machines.

12 points by sandebert 3y ago

I'm curious to what is the output from the digestion - apart from more microbes.

For past two decades, this news shows up every year as if some new ground breaking discovery is made. We have seen no impact of any kind so far. It seems some research group releases this to media whenever they are due to apply for funding.

arbitrandomuser 3y ago
It's also kind of sad , for all of human history we never had this wonder material like plastic , light , strong , moldable , cheap and very importantly resistant to chemicals , pests and microbial destruction and in the few decades that we have had it we are scrambling to look for bacteria that will digest them because we over did it .
montalbano 3y ago
This is newsworthy because the bacteria can function at lower temperatures (15 C) than previous bacteria discovered.
jaclaz 3y ago
I have no idea of the actual data, but I believe that percentage in waste plastics of those kinds (PE+PUR+PBAT+PLA) are something like: 95.0% PE 3.9% PUR 1.1% PBAT+PLA so, even if these newly found microbes are effective and come into use they probably won't make in practice much a change, and - as you say - every year it comes out some article about research on these microbes (including some with potential for "eating" PE) but no news about them being used industrially.

parasti 3y ago

This is the start of a sci-fi book I read many years ago, but I can't remember the name of it.

lasercat 3y ago
Ill Wind by Kevin J. Anderson?
rasz 3y ago
"...et in pulverem reverteri", a short story by Janusz Zajdel (up there with Lem of Solaris fame) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Zajdel TLDR: Someone invents catalyst able to encode any material with programmable expiry date. Every country adopts it to ensure steady employment across planet. Pants? 3 months and revert back to dust, wrist watch? 1 year, car? 2 years, etc. Can only find Polish copy https://web.archive.org/web/20170722210628/http://zajdel.dzaba.com/zajdel/etin.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20170722210628/http://zajdel.dza... google translate doesnt like this particular web.archive link so you would have to manually copy text to translate
RecycledEle 3y ago
Was this how Ring World fell? A recycling bacteria got out of control and ate the infrastructure and the machines.