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TIL - Laboratory experiments show that bacteria really do eat and digest plastic (www.sciencedaily.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

That's really interesting but I am curious what waste products the bacteria excrete from the metabolic process of digestion. I hope the waste products from the bacteria are actually useful.

EDIT: Okay, so CO2 is produced by the bacteria. I also read more carefully and the study suggests that we produce more refuse plastic than the bacteria can consume.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Monkey’s Paw lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

the study suggests that we produce more refuse plastic than the bacteria can consume.

That sounds like a ratio problem

Goudriaan already did some pilot experiments with real sea water and some sediment that she had collected from the Wadden Sea floor. "The first results of these experiments hints at plastic being degraded, even in nature," she says. "A new PhD student will have to continue that work. Ultimately, of course, you hope to calculate how much plastic in the oceans really is degraded by bacteria. But much better than cleaning up, is prevention. And only we humans can do that," Goudriaan says.

So less plastic and more plastic eating bacteria, maybe it could be genetically engineered to produced biofuel.

We need net zero plastic as well as co2. Any tech that can recycle plastic pollution and offset a fossil fuel emission should get turbo tax credits.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would guess they can digest some plastic. I don't see them eating kevlar...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They don't need to eat kevlar when they can eat lead kid.

https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/web/2014/03/BeefedBacteria-Lead-Water.html