616
Worldbuilding (mander.xyz)

___

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] cogitase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 37 points 1 week ago

There is a huge diversity of plastics being produced today and each one will require a unique evolutionary adaptation to be biodegraded. We’re also continuously developing new plastics and new combinations of plastics such as core-shell polymers. You also had much more wood available than you have plastic scattered across the earth, meaning much more energy available for any microorganisms that evolved to degrade wood and thus a greater evolutionary advantage. I don’t think microbes are going to save us from the plastic scourge anytime soon.

[-] kapulsa@feddit.org 12 points 1 week ago

Agree with all points except the availability of plastic.

There might have been more wood, but the mass of plastic is enormous. I remember that it's more than the mass of all animals. The value should be from this study, but it's closed access, so I can't check.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3010-5

this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2025
616 points (100.0% liked)

Science Memes

16103 readers
2797 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS