(no subject)

[arethinn]

WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags

Although my understanding is that even "biodegradable" stuff doesn't decompose all that well in landfills either, because of the way they're packed, but hey, it's something.

Comments

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

*nods* Basically, to my understanding, because there's not much air and dirt to facilitate bacteria growth, buying, say, biodegradable trash bags doesn't do much good. You can dig around in a landfill and find things that have been in there for years--and by "things" I mean including organics like food refuse--that are still recognizable.

[stillvisions.livejournal.com]

I think the extended answer to that is "it's better than pop culture asserts it to be, but not as good as we'd like it". There's been a few environmentalists who've facepalmed over the zeal to eradicate plastic bags over all else - not that it's a bad thing, but it's a much less significant problem than others ones but gets latched onto because it's good PR and easy to convince people about. Even Greenpeace is like "look, less waste is good, but this isn't the big problem"

http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and-events/media/releases/general/greenpeace-statement-on-plasti

[arethinn]

I imagine they would also eat other items made out of the same plastic, but really I was hoping they might be coaxed to eat other kinds, or that the same methods could be used to work out what bacteria might eat other kinds. (Be nice if there was one that ate polystyrene...)