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Bacteria Eat Styrofoam

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the just-like-a-tasty-steak dept.

chaosmage42 writes "Scientists at the University of Dublin have found a way to break down styrofoam, the bane of recyclers/composters everywhere. This could be a great step towards sustainability, but it does require the styrofoam to be heated first."

2 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Cancer anyone? by BecomingLumberg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Last I checked, heating styrofoam let off some pretty nasty gasses... Is this really the whiz-bang solution we were hoping for?

    --
    If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.-TJ
  2. Cost v. Benefit? by jon.wolf · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From reading the article (I know, how novel!), I understand that the styrofoam must be turned into a liquid and the first thing that came to my mind was: How much energy is required to do that?

    The foam doesn't just need to be warmed, it has to be heated to the point of breaking down. I can't imagine doing this on a large scale would be cheap. Would the enviromental impact resulting from the creation of millions of joules of energy required to break down styrofoam outweigh the environmental benefits of destroying the styrofoam?

    Also, I have learned from my accidental non-scientific microwave experiments that melting styrofoam smells terrible. Would liquifying styrofoam on a large scale produce similar noxious fumes (and potential environmental side effects)?