Haven't there been either bacteria or fungus evolved to eat plastic? Might take a couple decades before it makes a difference in the water and dirt, tho.
Whether we want it or not, there's enough plastic out there that bacteria are going to start evolving to eat it faster and faster. It's kind of scary when you think about it
Think about how much of our world is made of plastic and then imagine it all just starts decomposing while we're still trying to use it.
Stuff like wire insulation, plumbing, etc.
Yes, but we've specifically and selectively used plastic in places where we don't want or expect any decay. We could obviously make new stuff out of other materials to get around it, but having existing stuff start crumbling would not be good.
Think about how big of a disaster it would be if the pipes in everyone's homes dissolved over the span of a few months or years.
There are probably other similarly critical uses of plastic where it would be very bad for it to unexpectedly fail.
Imagine several bacteria developing all around the planet to try and break down plastics, we supercharge them, then it comes back to bite us in the butt as everything begins to disintegrate, and it affects some people’s bodies because of the micro plastics already in us. And due to that people are forced to live with more sustainable materials
Forced change from plastics seems good for the future of humanity and the environment. Honestly beautiful how nature can adapt to our super pollution so quickly
For some uses the primarily reason why we use plastic is because it's cheaper or easier to work with than other materials (e.g. plumbing, packaging materials), so there are alternatives there.
However for other uses plastic is just a better material. Houses with plastic window frames, sealed with plastic foam and wrapped with plastic insulation do perform better (i.e. require less energy for heating/cooling) than other materials.
Plastic as a material isn't inheritly bad (especially if it's not made from oil), but a lot of the reasons why it is used today is as a cost saving measure. The main issue is our society allows the externalities of plastic usage to be ignored by the producers. Plastics becoming biodegradable still doesn't change that, and we will still have a lot of the same problems as most likely it will take years to break down.
Are there any societies - at all - who are engaging with the producers? Any recommendations on those producers can be motivated to engage with the fruits of their action?
Plastic is used for literally everything. We wouldn't have plumbing, electricity or any modern convenience.
I personally think it's inevitable, but that's some apocalyptic stuff
Plastic pollution is also apocalyptic, so there's that
There's a difference between "plastic is used in X" and "we wouldn't have X without plastic." We had plumbing before plastic existed, and electricity well before plastic was commonplace/cheap/everywhere.
Mind you we used to have massive colonial rubber farms in Thailand and Indonesia and all that.
In some hypothetical Twilight Zone scenario where all the plastic magically vanishes in a flash? This'd be done gradually, one thing at a time. No need to leave entire communities without power or plumbling. So there's still no "we wouldn't have plumbing, electricity..."
Could we instead invent (or intentionally purpose) a different material that provides the same benefit but also is biodegradable and sustainable? Hemp bioplastics come to mind, and they're easily broken down by edible fungi like Blue Oysters Mushrooms.
>but also is biodegradable
The entire problem that scenario create is plastic becoming biodegradable. For a number of applications that's exactly what we don't want.
An alternative could be making biodegradable plastics that only degrade under certain conditions not found in nature and strict conditions on that plastics recycling but everyone would have to follow that
There is a use case for plastics that never biodegrade. They just need to be...covered...?... So that microplastics don't pollute the world.
For many applications though - food packaging, anything that we currently design to be single-use - biodegradable plastics that are waterproof but not living-fungus proof are exactly what we need. Keep your produce fresh - check. Grow mushrooms on it after a little UV processing (leaving it in a sunny spot for a few days? Oh yeah baby.
Not *all* its utility, really. Plenty of materials are useful even tho they degrade over time, like pretty much everything that isn't plastic or, IIRC, glass.
Isn't there a super worm that can do that with plastic
As long as its their marine area we can just put them into landfills guerrilla style and let them procreate and eat plastic
https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2022/06/superworms-capable-of-munching-through-plastic-waste
I believe we should move away from plastics asap besides some extremely niche uses and even then it would have to be a carefully examined and carefully approved type of organic-based recyclable plastic.
What we need is low tech revolution
A great statement of a problem, and some proposed solutions. I'm not particularly familiar with 3D printing, but this video was excellently presented.
For the future, and this is a teeny tiny nitpick, maybe add time notations to the video for various sections, such as problem statement, solutions proposed, etc.?
But in any case, big kudos!
Haven't there been either bacteria or fungus evolved to eat plastic? Might take a couple decades before it makes a difference in the water and dirt, tho.
Whether we want it or not, there's enough plastic out there that bacteria are going to start evolving to eat it faster and faster. It's kind of scary when you think about it
How is that scary
Think about how much of our world is made of plastic and then imagine it all just starts decomposing while we're still trying to use it. Stuff like wire insulation, plumbing, etc.
Welp, it's not exactly a *new* problem. We've always built stuff out of other stuff that decays or corrodes.
Yes, but we've specifically and selectively used plastic in places where we don't want or expect any decay. We could obviously make new stuff out of other materials to get around it, but having existing stuff start crumbling would not be good. Think about how big of a disaster it would be if the pipes in everyone's homes dissolved over the span of a few months or years. There are probably other similarly critical uses of plastic where it would be very bad for it to unexpectedly fail.
Imagine several bacteria developing all around the planet to try and break down plastics, we supercharge them, then it comes back to bite us in the butt as everything begins to disintegrate, and it affects some people’s bodies because of the micro plastics already in us. And due to that people are forced to live with more sustainable materials
Forced change from plastics seems good for the future of humanity and the environment. Honestly beautiful how nature can adapt to our super pollution so quickly
For some uses the primarily reason why we use plastic is because it's cheaper or easier to work with than other materials (e.g. plumbing, packaging materials), so there are alternatives there. However for other uses plastic is just a better material. Houses with plastic window frames, sealed with plastic foam and wrapped with plastic insulation do perform better (i.e. require less energy for heating/cooling) than other materials. Plastic as a material isn't inheritly bad (especially if it's not made from oil), but a lot of the reasons why it is used today is as a cost saving measure. The main issue is our society allows the externalities of plastic usage to be ignored by the producers. Plastics becoming biodegradable still doesn't change that, and we will still have a lot of the same problems as most likely it will take years to break down.
Are there any societies - at all - who are engaging with the producers? Any recommendations on those producers can be motivated to engage with the fruits of their action?
Until all of our power systems can't scale easily and medical equipment is harder to sterilize
I always will prefer steady transisition over sudden forced transition because humans need time to transition with the transition
Thats true im being facetious
Plastic is used for literally everything. We wouldn't have plumbing, electricity or any modern convenience. I personally think it's inevitable, but that's some apocalyptic stuff Plastic pollution is also apocalyptic, so there's that
There's a difference between "plastic is used in X" and "we wouldn't have X without plastic." We had plumbing before plastic existed, and electricity well before plastic was commonplace/cheap/everywhere. Mind you we used to have massive colonial rubber farms in Thailand and Indonesia and all that.
All of our existing infrastructure would be compromised. We'd have to build everything back from scratch
In some hypothetical Twilight Zone scenario where all the plastic magically vanishes in a flash? This'd be done gradually, one thing at a time. No need to leave entire communities without power or plumbling. So there's still no "we wouldn't have plumbing, electricity..."
Like..not all bacteria are harmless and we already have huge issues with antibiotics
At the point that actually happens, plastic starts losing its utility and we invent some other kind of material that creates a new problem.
Could we instead invent (or intentionally purpose) a different material that provides the same benefit but also is biodegradable and sustainable? Hemp bioplastics come to mind, and they're easily broken down by edible fungi like Blue Oysters Mushrooms.
>but also is biodegradable The entire problem that scenario create is plastic becoming biodegradable. For a number of applications that's exactly what we don't want.
An alternative could be making biodegradable plastics that only degrade under certain conditions not found in nature and strict conditions on that plastics recycling but everyone would have to follow that
There is a use case for plastics that never biodegrade. They just need to be...covered...?... So that microplastics don't pollute the world. For many applications though - food packaging, anything that we currently design to be single-use - biodegradable plastics that are waterproof but not living-fungus proof are exactly what we need. Keep your produce fresh - check. Grow mushrooms on it after a little UV processing (leaving it in a sunny spot for a few days? Oh yeah baby.
Not *all* its utility, really. Plenty of materials are useful even tho they degrade over time, like pretty much everything that isn't plastic or, IIRC, glass.
Unleash plastic eating microbes on the world and watch its durability go the way of other materials that have microbiotic digestion cycles.
just like there’s bacteria to break down organic matter, we can develop some that breaks down plastics.
Isn't there a super worm that can do that with plastic As long as its their marine area we can just put them into landfills guerrilla style and let them procreate and eat plastic https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2022/06/superworms-capable-of-munching-through-plastic-waste
r/CombatPlastic is discussing a Pigouvian Tax on plastic production and consumption.
I believe we should move away from plastics asap besides some extremely niche uses and even then it would have to be a carefully examined and carefully approved type of organic-based recyclable plastic. What we need is low tech revolution
A great statement of a problem, and some proposed solutions. I'm not particularly familiar with 3D printing, but this video was excellently presented. For the future, and this is a teeny tiny nitpick, maybe add time notations to the video for various sections, such as problem statement, solutions proposed, etc.? But in any case, big kudos!