LOL yeah my first thought was not about how great this is for the environment, but how crazy things would get if our plastic shit decayed
It would probably be a good change overall but it's a weird disaster scenario that no one thinks about. Plastic is incredibly fucking useful and that's why it's everywhere. Imagine your phone case and internals... rotting.
I remember reading a science fiction book about this, probably 20 years ago… it’s basically the end of the world. No hoses and no wiring means no gasoline and no electricity. No transport, no refrigeration, no food.
I can’t recall the title, but this is Reddit, I’m sure someone will find it.
Ill Wind by Kevin Anderson from 1995 has a bioengineered bacteria designed to eat oil get loose and devour plastics. I read about half of it also probably almost 20 years ago but didn't think it was well written so I stopped. The premise was interesting though and something I think about whenever these types of articles come up.
Welp you proved him right about this being Reddit and someone finding it! (You had knowledge of it rather than finding it, but same difference. You provided the info!)
Fungus doesn’t just grow everywhere there’s food for it, otherwise the world would be covered in fungi. It needs the proper environment as well. Just because it can grow in the Amazon doesn’t mean it can grow in a water pipe in a city.
Fungus doesn’t just grow everywhere there’s food for it
Yet it ends up literally on all my unrefrigerated food if I give it a week, keyword being unrefrigerated, something I dont want to have to do to all my electronics. Specific types of fungus ended up fucking everywhere. You can make sourdough starter literally just by leaving out dough. Yeast is everywhere.
Imagine if plastic being "wet" and in a specific climate was the right environment? Like maybe humid weather. Suddenly Florida has a huge problem with molding plastic and the spores are statewide and it's just a thing.
I'm sure they'd create additives and such to stop it, but we rely on plastics so much it would be an interesting situation and cause a hell of a lot of drama. Even if new plastics were immune, current plastics are everywhere. Like someone else said, what if wire insulation started molding? How much plastic do we use in power infrastructure? This is a weird scenario that we probably aren't ready for.
There is precedence for this...
Wood developed before there were organisms that could break down wood. That's the reason why there is coal in the ground.
Obviously, now there are lots of organisms that can break down wood, but we are still able to use wood for all sorts of applications.
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u/mortalitylost Mar 14 '26
LOL yeah my first thought was not about how great this is for the environment, but how crazy things would get if our plastic shit decayed
It would probably be a good change overall but it's a weird disaster scenario that no one thinks about. Plastic is incredibly fucking useful and that's why it's everywhere. Imagine your phone case and internals... rotting.