When a microbe was found munching on a plastic bottle in a rubbish dump, it promised a recycling revolution. Now scientists are attempting to turbocharge those powers in a bid to solve our waste crisis. But will it work?
This bacteria eats only one type of plastic (PET), and that’s a minority of the plastic we produce
Related, half of the plastic pollution in the oceans is fishing nets; want less plastic in the environment, stopping fishing would be a better first step (and is required for many other reasons anyway)
PET is one of the most worrying plastics because it’s soft and sheds microplastic easily.
Also, microorganisms are fairly easy to adapt to other food sources because of how rapidly they evolve. Coupled with genetic modification I don’t think it’s impossible for this to be adapted to all forms of soft plastic.
And while this is good. It is also going to cause problems when bacteria starts eating plastic we don’t want it too.