Every so often, a new study about plastic-eating bacteria gets published in a scientific journal. Shortly thereafter, it flashes across the internet as it gets picked up by a flurry of environmental blogs, science and tech websites, and even national news outlets.
Off the rails on a crazy strain Perhaps the most significant reason that plastic-eating bacteria haven’t rid the world of plastic pollution yet is that we’ve only identified a small handful that can significantly degrade plastic. Now, to be fair, there are organisms that can break down some of these other common plastics. Ideonella isn’t the only ace we have up our sleeve. Some species of mealworm, for example, can eat and break down styrofoam, and scientists have shown that specific types of fungi can degrade polypropylene by up to 90%. But for the vast majority of plastic types in the world, we haven’t yet identified an organism that can break them down completely.
Bacteria aren’t like honeybees. We can’t just plop them in a landfill and expect them to navigate directly to a food source that’s sitting in the distance. They typically can’t travel very far without some kind of external help , and most aren’t particularly hardy – especially when faced with unfamiliar environmental conditions.
Facilities like this “are a massive infrastructure which already exists,” says Rockne, “and all kinds of human waste products are funneled through them. And now we’re recognizing that these can be a source of recovering products. And one of those, for example, is plastics and other various chemical feedstocks. So these kinds of treatment facilities are very, very promising to prevent further release of plastics to the ecosphere.
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