[HN Gopher] Microbes in cow stomachs may help our plastic problem
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Microbes in cow stomachs may help our plastic problem
Author : shoto_io
Score : 21 points
Date : 2021-07-04 15:42 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (interestingengineering.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (interestingengineering.com)
| plumeria wrote:
| Previously discussed here:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27724653
| partomniscient wrote:
| Plastic is a difficult one - its key value is the very fact that
| nature doesn't readily break it down (Edit: and it's lightweight
| in comparison). Nature learning or us teaching nature to do so
| removes its usefulness.
|
| I wouldn't consider computation output accurate if the computer
| is also composting into pieces as it operates, and I wouldn't
| want to run the risk of a container being 'eaten'
| spilling/spoiling its contents before it reaches its destination.
|
| That doesn't excuse us from what we did to nature in creating and
| dumping plastics and associated by-products though. Single-use
| throw away stuff still does my head in. Just because we can
| doesn't mean we should, we did anyway, and we're only now
| beginning to understand the repercussions of our collective
| actions.
|
| If this problem becomes 'oversolved' we break civilisation as we
| know it, as anything made of plastic deteriorates much more
| quickly/readily than its original expected lifetime, and we have
| a massive plastic dependency issue.
| quijoteuniv wrote:
| we should not be expecting a magic fix by science. Unless
| microbes in cow stomaches can fix stupidity in humankind. We do
| need science, but we really need to pull ourselves together.
| Why do we have plastic? It all goes down to the system in we
| live, and the people going to space for fun!
| monk_e_boy wrote:
| Stopping people having fun doesn't have anything to do with
| plastics. So that's a weird argument to have.
|
| Just put a return value on plastic. Have governments pay out
| for plastics returned to them. PS20 a kilo? PS200 a kilo? At
| some point it you can make it worth while taking a ship to
| sea and fishing plastic out to make money.
|
| Where does the government get the money to pay for plastic
| recycling? Tax the plastic producers.
|
| There are solutions to most of our problems, it's us not
| voting in a government that will address these issues.
| ElViajero wrote:
| > Nature learning or us teaching nature to do so removes its
| usefulness.
|
| So, we create bacteria that can eat plastic. The bacteria
| starts to eat our food packages and spoils the food. We create
| eating-plastic bacteria-resistant plastic. Full circle.
| quijoteuniv wrote:
| And i tell you more, is the same company that create both!
| awestroke wrote:
| Your computer would not be moist enough to be attacked by these
| bacteria
| shoto_io wrote:
| Your last paragraph is very interesting. Yet, I'm much more
| positive regarding that scenario.
|
| I think it's helps to look at wood as an analogy. Dead wood
| could not be broken down for a long time. That's why we ended
| up with dead trees turned into coal and oil.
|
| Then bacteria arrived which could break these materials down.
| But still today we have a lot durable things built out of wood.
|
| I think similarly we will find ways to protect our important
| plastics.
| partomniscient wrote:
| I thought it interesting to think about too. Because we
| measure everything using short-term values, we don't
| understand what we do to the long-term future.
|
| We could, but we don't seem to readily learn from past
| similar situations.
|
| Ideally the container would serve its purpose for as long as
| needed and breaks down accordingly - there's a high level of
| variance though, and our ability to refrigerate extends that.
| So because the expected 'lifetime' of a perishable good
| transported in plastic is highly variable, its not a simple
| time-matching problem.
|
| Who knows - maybe our dumped plastics become compressed into
| the future equivalent of diamonds...?
|
| But yeah, humanity generally has a way of finding workarounds
| / treatments etc. etc. For some reason I was recently reading
| wikipedia about how " _Anodizing was first used on an
| industrial scale in 1923 to protect Duralumin seaplane parts
| from corrosion_ " and now its commonplace, extending
| durability everywhere.
| sigspec wrote:
| _Because we measure everything using short-term values_
|
| Generational thinking is something most of us are bad at
| but it's something we need to strongly emphasize going
| forward.
| joshtam wrote:
| Well need to fund innovative ways to recycle plastic. In the
| future it will be very problematic as it's number is increasing.
| Great effort.
| whoopdedo wrote:
| What are the byproducts of this process? We already know that
| cows are emitting a concerning amount of methane into the
| atmosphere. If the result of this is releasing all the fossilized
| carbon captured by the plastic, then we'll be solving the plastic
| pollution problem by greatly worsening the greenhouse gas
| problem.
| Zenst wrote:
| Interesting, I was aware they can make plastic from milk - called
| "casein plastic", so certainly would tie in that their stomachs
| have microbes that can effect the chains in plastic.
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