Posted: 2/5/2017 Updated/revised: 5/23/2019, 12/9/2018
Update Of 5/23/2019
Another, recent article: These tiny microbes are munching away at plastic waste in the ocean
This article also stresses the destructive power of sunlight on plastic floating on body of water surface (emphasis added): “To conduct the study, researchers collected weathered plastic from two different beaches in Chania, Greece. The litter had already been exposed to the sun and undergone chemical changes that caused it to become more brittle, all of which needs to happen before the microbes start to munch on the plastic.”
Few articles about plastic actually mention this fact that exposure to sunlight already degrades plastic used for consumer products (e.g. polyethylene, polystyrene).
“The team immersed both [polyethylene, polystyrene] in saltwater with either naturally occurring ocean microbes or engineered microbes that were enhanced with carbon-eating microbe strains and could survive solely off of the carbon in plastic. Scientists then analyzed changes in the materials over a period of 5 months. Both types of plastic lost a significant amount of weight after being exposed to the natural and engineered microbes, scientists reported ...”
Update Of 12/9/2018
Meanwhile, more articles have been published about this subject:
- Forscher entwickeln besseres Enzym gegen Plastikmüll – aus Versehen (German language; dated 4/17/2018)
- Recycling hope for plastic-hungry enzyme (Dated 4/18/2018)
Both articles refer to a variant of a bacteria (Ideonella sakaiensis) that can break down PET plastic. Apparently, researchers were able to optimize the enzyme in the meantime. “The modified enzyme, known as PETase, can start breaking down the same material in just a few days.” (Source 2)
Plastics In The Cross Hairs Again
In case you had not noticed there is new environmental alarmism or hysteria going on about plastic contaminating oceans and ending up in the food chain. As usual the contamination claims are dramatically exaggerated. In past decades, many different attempts were made to malign plastics.
Trust In Human Ingenuity
I trust human ingenuity to handle such overblown concerns. Just read
Genetically Modified Bacteria Could Eat Away The World’s Massive Plastic Problem (dated 1/22/2017). The article is rather vague on specifics presumably to protect intellectual property rights. Here is the salient quote from the article (emphasis added): “Enter “Plasticure-BGU.” This invention would degrade the plastic and, as a byproduct of this process, will produce electricity by utilizing the energy released from PET’s bonds. … using engineered enzymes and bacteria that could use plastic as a primary carbon source”
If I am not mistaken, humans also on the cusp of other solutions to the e.g. long recognized durability problem. I would bet humans soon will be capable of making plastic biodegradable, although previous attempts at that were not successful.
No To Statism
The usual recourse preferred by environmentalists to ban plastics outright should be rejected!
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