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Pantry Pests Harbor Plastic-Chomping Bacteria

Posted by samzenpus on from the earth-plus-plastic dept.

MTorrice writes In the U.S. alone, consumers discard over 32 million tons of plastic each year, only 9% of which is recycled. Polyethylene is one of the most popular and, unfortunately, persistent types of plastics. Bags, bottles, and packaging made from the polymer accumulate in landfills and oceans across the globe. Scientists have lamented that the material isn't biodegradable because microbes can't chew up the plastic to render it harmless. However, a new study reports the first definitive molecular evidence that two species of bacteria, found in the guts of a common pantry pest, can thrive on polyethylene and break it apart.

4 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Deobfuscated Links by khellendros1984 · · Score: 3, Informative

    A new study reports
    molecular evidence

    Because fuck using URL shorteners when they're unnecessary. It's better to know at least the domain that a link will take you to.

    --
    It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
    1. Re:Deobfuscated Links by proxima · · Score: 3, Informative

      The DOI link is more than just a shortener. It's supposed to guarantee a permanently available link, while your second link might not. DOIs are commonly included in references now instead of normal http links.

      --
      "The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
  2. Re:Starting to get weary of clickbait "journalism" by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Informative

    The URLs for the links are also in shortened form, so you can't even tell what the article is about due to the URL.

    So your complaining about having to click links to learn more?

    No, he's complaining about link shortening / obfuscation. Anyone who's clicked on a shortened link and gotten rickrolled or goatse'd, as well as anyone who's been scammed by short links in emails claiming to be from your bank, has hopefully learned that url-shorteners == bad things can happen.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  3. It turns plastic into starch, like potatos by raymorris · · Score: 5, Informative

    It doesn't turn into small pieces of plastic, it turns it into ~starch.

    Polyethelene is (C2H4)nH2, where n is large. In other words, it's a long chain of carbon-hydrogen units.

    Sugar and starch, on the other hand, are chains of carbon-hydrogen-OXYGEN units. If the chain is short, it is called a sugar, long chains made are called starches. All animals get their energy from these starches and sugars. Short chains (sugars) are easier to digest than long chains (starches).

      So the frustrating thing is that the big differences between plastic and starch (food) is the oxygen atom, and the length - polyethene molecules are even longer than starch. If you add oxygen to plastic and cut the molecules apart, you'd end up with food, except the plastic doesn't allow the oxygen molecule in.

    This bacteria does that difficult trick, it forces oxygen atoms in, splitting the molecular chain in the process. After the bacteria does its thing, the result is more like starch than plastic.

    At this very early stage, initial testing with this exact microbe didn't immediately dispose of large amounts. That would take more time, more of the bacteria, or a better version of the bacteria.