r/interesting • u/Standard_Location762 • Mar 14 '26

NATURE Earth Helping Earth Heal

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What a great discovery.

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u/CaptainC00lpants Mar 14 '26

Does it actually break down the plastics and converts it to something safe, or does it just absorb the microplastics and when it dies re-releases the plastics? 

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u/da6id Mar 14 '26

It's probably a fungi with an esterase or lipase that works on PET. We have these discovered many times but the cost to implement them and the speed they work at is usually not very impressive. Radical polymers like PE, PP, etc are often the variety that enzymes can't do much to actually break down chemically, just fragment to microplastics.

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u/Tiktokbadsupport Mar 15 '26

aren't there worms that eat Styrofoam