Bad News For The Plastic Ono Band

The title has nothing to do with the subject. I ran across this article and found it interesting since plastic waste is becoming a global problem. An enzyme that eats plastic and returns it’s constituent parts sounds almost too good to be true.

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/scientists-accidentally-produce-enzyme-devours-120200826.html

When it consumes the entire Pacific Garbage Patch, Ill get excited…

From the link:

According to the team, potential future uses for the enzyme could include spraying it on the huge islands of floating plastic in oceans to break down the material.

Is it just me, or does this seem like a remarkably bad idea?

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I had the same reaction. What else do those enzymes eat? Fiberglass? Will plastic eating enzymes do to fiberglass boast what toredo worms do to wooden boats?

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My first thought was “The Andromeda Strain”.

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There’s that, but also, just a few lines above:

The mutant enzyme could be used to turn plastic back into its original components. “It means we won’t need to dig up any more oil and, fundamentally, it should reduce the amount of plastic in the environment,” said McGeehan.

Ok, so, the floating islands of plastic are now gone. What shall we do with the ensuing oil slick?

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We already have enzymes that eat oil slicks. Lighter crudes evaporate.

I groaned when I read “need to dig up any more oil”. Most oil is drilled for and not “dug up”. Also, a lot of plastics, including PET, are made with natural gas as well as oil.

Would spraying an enzyme on plastic in an open environment contribute to air pollution by releasing unburned hydrocarbons into the atmosphere?

Bacteria also

Fun fact I was there when SCOTUS decided to hear the case that allowed bacteria to be patented for the first time. One of the criticisms at the time was that it could go rogue and start eating everything it came across. So far, knock plastic wood, it hasn’t happened.

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Yeah it does, we’d most likely end up with an ocean full of sludge.

…ensuing oil slick? They have had a bacteria for that too for decades.

Abe

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Well meaning though it may be humans mess up more things than they fix. Sometimes it’s just bad luck, some times it’s poor thinking. You know the old saying that Mongomongo had a bird problem so they brought over snakes to eat the birds but they didn’t take into account that the snakes were nocturnal and the birds not so but that the snakes ate lizards which increased the insect problem so Mongomongo imported Mongese to eat the snakes but found that they ate so many snakes that now Mongomongo has a Mongoose problem. Biological systems are VERY complex.

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Don’t care much for such an apparently liberal and uncontrolled method. Our children might be left finding ways to manage the Enzyme Layer. Paul

For those who are really concerned…lets save the environment. I am asking you to give up your E type…donate it to me and I will buy you a Prius.
Or are we like the Hollywood hypocrites who have their Jets, big SUVs, live in there Malibu beach front property want the rest of us to limit our use of fossil fuels and save the beaches??
Abe

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That’s the “No Perfect Scotsman” logical fallacy, Abe: the sum total of ALL our toy cars’ emissions don’t equal part of a DAY of passenger miles, in Denver (last number I had was 44 million vehicle-miles/day).

Generating electricity is the largest source of carbon, followed by transportation, agriculture, and industries like concrete production.

What is meaningful is all the various and small ways to lessen our carbon footprints, and what we do to lessen our personal energy intensity.

Playing with fossil-fueled toy cars is part of that, no doubt: there are much more important things to do, such as lessen flying, cruising, buying local, and a myriad of other actions.

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

~Edmund Burke

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I’m not sure where you are going with that but there is one thing you can be sure of. Science and the facts generated by science contain no politically bias.

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              While oil eating bacteria do exist in the GOM they obviously didn't eat too fast back in 2010 (deep water horizon).The prevailing wisdom then was to sink the oil  with dispersant and sink it they did. .Spent 3 months soaking it up with booms putting the oil/dispersant soaked booms in plastic bags and then into a tractor trailer sized dumpster.. It was tough work in the tyvex suits.It sure helped to have a/c on your boat.

After 50 yrs or so at sea the changes to the environment are just staggering.From disappearing marsh to plastic EVERYWHERE.I would love to see something done on the plastic.We wont stop it onshore as that would hurt the bottom line.

I’m 63. My dad was a green grocer when I was a kid. I honestly can’t think of any good product that was packed in plastic back then. We drank water from a thing called tap NOT damn plastic bottles!
Even babies bottles were glass and infinitely re useable!
Ice cream was in blocks,wrapped in wax cardboard. Not F…ing plastic tubs!
Potatoes? You brought you own “ tatter bag” into the shop and your spuds were weighed on scales and tipped into it.
No plastic sacks of pre washed spuds then! I could go on and on! We need to get back to this point on food packaging.
Supermarkets should not be allowed to sell food in the way they do.we all need to realise that fresh food particularly does have to look nice on the shelf! It’s up to you to use your skill to make it look and taste good. Without supermarkets tarting things up in mountains of various colours of plastic FFS!

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