Worldwide, researchers are hunting for a kind of `secret sauce’ — a souped-up enzyme capable of breaking down some of the most resilient plastics.
I remember reading that, although we are discovering new organisms that break down plastic, the organism still emits greenhouse gases through metabolic waste. And the output of that emission is similar to the emissions of just burning the plastic.
It spreads the emissions out over a longer time period, which I guess has it’s benefits. Does anyone know if this research has progressed at all? I haven’t had time to follow closely enough.
I guess the benefit is that it can get rid of plastic in the wild, after we’ve incorrectly disposed of it.
But yeah, burning this plastic in a waste-to-energy plant with proper carbon capture seems the ideal way to handle the end-of-life of plastic.
We should really be looking at stopping its production in the first place, though.
Agreed. Stopping production or limiting it to a few uses like medical purposes will be a more important factor
Biggest problem is that we have been using plastic as part of our infrastructure for a long time. Creating/introducing a creature that eats it seems like a tricky balancing act
Pestalotiopsis microspora (available on Amazon)
