this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Today I learned

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TIL - Laboratory experiments show that bacteria really do eat and digest plastic (www.sciencedaily.com)
submitted 1 year ago by bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works to c/todayilearned@lemmy.ml
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[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Plastics are only made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, and sulfur though, not very exotic.

I found this article on stuff that might be able to get rid of it

Microbes in oceans and soils across the globe are evolving to eat plastic, according to a study.

The research scanned more than 200m genes found in DNA samples taken from the environment and found 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 different types of plastic.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/14/bugs-across-globe-are-evolving-to-eat-plastic-study-finds

[–] Sethayy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No offence but using variety of elements in a molecules composition to determine its 'exoticness' is a horrible metric.

Human life is probably one of the most complex machines out there, and that's all we are; shit carbon alone I'd say is the most exotic element due to its versatility, look at CNT's, diamonds, and oil

(big fancy ones like uranium tend to be less interesting cause their lack of stability, carbon has 4 really stable bonds it can do a shitload with - aka hold a plastic bottle together for a couple thousand years)

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It'd be weird if something didn't evolve to eat it is my point. It's just dead animals.

[–] Sethayy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorta, evolution takes time and plastic is pretty biologically inert - hence why its hard to do anything with, its in like an energy deadzone

[–] bernieecclestoned@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Forgive my ignorance, but isn't that what UV does?

[–] Sethayy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No worries! It does but only at the weakest points, and these break points would be more easily broken down by any means (chemical/biological or thermal through radiation).

The issue is that the entire molecule isnt made up of these, and so anything UV would be able to do (at least in our atmosphere), biologically bactieria can't do much better.

Its also part of the reason we can't just toss our trash in a big ol UV light or just leave it out in the sun and expect it to disappear; all its useful properties will but the brittle plastic leftover won't. This is why recycling plastic is so hard compared to other materials.