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We happy? Yeah, we happy. (startrek.website)
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[-] HopingForBetter@kbin.social 137 points 9 months ago

Step 1. Invent microplastics.
Step 2. Have people ingest microplastics into their bodies.
Step 3. Evolve plastic-eating mushrooms.
Step 4. ???
Step 5. The Last of Us IRL

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.world 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Those two dudes in the fenced off city led pretty great lives in The Last of Us. Everyone else suffered terribly though.

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[-] LesDeuxBonsYeux@sh.itjust.works 99 points 9 months ago

I've seen this every year for a decade still not a thing

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 61 points 9 months ago

Plastic is also such an unspecific term. In regards to biodegradability there is no reason why PE, PP, PVC, PLA, PS and all the others should behave similiarly. Aside from some form of polymerization they are entirely different chemicals.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 29 points 9 months ago

It would actually be scary to me if an organism evolves to rapidly eat all plastic. Imagine plastic rust... ugh, its just a terrifying idea. You think mantianing a car is difficult now, wait until you have to check the integrity of any "plastic" component

[-] brisk@aussie.zone 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Wood didn't rot in the carboniferous era. It used to build up in dense layers that became our modern coal veins.

At some point microorganisms evolved to exploit that vast resource. Now coal can no longer generate naturally and we have to keep wood structures dry or painted lest they be reclaimed by the Eafth.

I don't know if there's any reason it couldn't happen to plastics. We've created the niche already, how long until something exploits it?

[-] bloubz@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 9 months ago

Rust is not caused by a living organism but fine. There's another good solution: don't use plastic. Also, we don't need personal cars

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[-] Kiosade@lemmy.ca 11 points 9 months ago

Well it’s a similar thing with “A cure for Cancer”. A cure for WHICH cancer? There are dozens of them…

[-] xkforce@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

Quality research is slow my dude.

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[-] einat2346@lemmy.today 8 points 9 months ago

The trick is that the mushroom would still rather eat literally anything else. So you'd have to gather a pile of only that specific plastic to break down, and now you have the initial problems of why we don't recycle in the first place: 💰

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[-] cloudless@feddit.uk 88 points 9 months ago

As with everything that sounds too good to be true... what's the catch?

[-] WeeSheep@lemmy.world 92 points 9 months ago

I see this every couple years (I think it's the same). The fungus can only degrade very few plastic types, like Styrofoam.

[-] Szymon@lemmy.ca 55 points 9 months ago

So are we disappointed it's not the perfect solution, so we don't bother?

Sounds like we're on the right track and someone can find a way to make money with this, or decide to dedicate their resources to it for society's benefit.

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

We don't bother because those few kinds of plastics aren't the ones that are causing most of the polution

If something costs millions and only works in a limited space, at specific conditions, and recycles 0.2% of all plastics, why would anyone want to invest in it?

[-] scutiger@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago

Because 0.2% of all plastics is still a lot of plastic.

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[-] BruceTwarzen@kbin.social 9 points 9 months ago

We already have the perfect solution. Stop producing plastic. But we sure as hell are not bothering with that either.

[-] Steve@startrek.website 7 points 9 months ago

Its no exaggeration to say plastic is essential to modern society

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[-] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 49 points 9 months ago

Fantastic. Styrofoam is not recyclable like Polypropylene or even the Polyethylenes. Styrofoam ends up in landfills. I want it in mushrooms.

It’s not the magic bullet but it’s a fucking howitzer. Yas kween.

[-] scutiger@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

Styrofoam is technically recyclable, it's just that there are very few facilities that handle it.

[-] BolexForSoup@kbin.social 12 points 9 months ago

Lots of Styrofoam out there we need to get rid of

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[-] zout@kbin.social 59 points 9 months ago

From other times something like this came up:

  1. The rate of conversion is too low
  2. It will only eat plastic if other carbon sources aren't available
    Probably more, this is from the top of my head. Also, this will still cause the plastic to eventually be converted into CO2 which is released in the atmosphere.
[-] xkforce@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

Having it actually break down into CO2, water and a few other things would be way better than it permanently contaminating our food, water and ecosystems.

[-] zout@kbin.social 6 points 9 months ago

I agree, and it will probably break down anyway giving enough time. But it would be even better to take it out of the environment completely. The best would be not to even produce it for trivial stuff, so it doesn't get to pollute the environment.

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[-] KittyCat@lemmy.world 25 points 9 months ago

Do you want to worry about plastic rotting like wood does?

[-] xkforce@lemmy.world 18 points 9 months ago

Yes. That'd be way better than having it kill animals and contaminate our food and water to the point where you basically cant avoid it. We literally want plastic to biodegrade. Just as long as it biodegrades after we are done using it. Which would be a wonderful problem to have compared to the current state of things.

[-] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 22 points 9 months ago

While edible the mushroom tasted like garbage.

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago

Even if we don't eat it, converting the plastics to something biodegradable would be a huge win.

[-] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

No disagreement here.

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[-] athos77@kbin.social 20 points 9 months ago

Well, everytime I see an article saying "we've found a [mushroom | bacteria | whatever] that eats plastic, yay!", I always think: well, yeah, that's great, but what about all the plastic we don't want eaten just yet?

[-] lowleveldata@programming.dev 11 points 9 months ago

keep those away from the mushroom?

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[-] OpenStars@startrek.website 7 points 9 months ago

The amount of micro-plastics in everyone's blood - even in tiny remote villages that have had next to no contact with the outside world - might make human beings look like an attractive meal to them? Surely nothing bad could happen if instead of micro-plastics we all have fungus in our blood?

[-] lowleveldata@programming.dev 19 points 9 months ago

Human beings already look like an attractive meal to all kinds of bacteria and virus

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[-] olafurp@lemmy.world 73 points 9 months ago

That's nice and all but these are fungi release CO2 into the atmosphere just like burning it would. It's a bit counter-intuitive but burning it with carbon capture is less CO2 emitting.

Filtering out particles is obvious requirement and easier than filtering CO2. This is all a worse solution than to simply use less plastic. Taxing plastic out of existence is the real solution.

[-] Tyfud@lemmy.world 35 points 9 months ago

Preach.

Everyone wants a silver bullet to the problem. The silver bullet begins and ends with a corporate pocketbook.

[-] optissima@lemmy.ml 16 points 9 months ago

Maybe we can silver bullet a few executive conspirators too?

[-] Magnetar@feddit.de 23 points 9 months ago

But the plastic already is captured carbon. Burning it and then capturing it again makes no sense at all.

If you want to avoid the micro plastic, store it better, that's still much cheaper.

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[-] xenoclast@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Taxing wasteful uses and protecting life saving uses (sanitization, hospitals, etc). Is the only solution. Treat every other approach as distractions by people who want to profit from the way things are.

Plastic is one of the greatest inventions of all time. But just like nuclear energy, it's also the most deadly to us if we are stupid.

[-] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 9 months ago

Don't even ask. Just start releasing that shit.

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 12 points 9 months ago

Do you want The Last of Us? Because this is how you get The Last of Us.

[-] Donjuanme@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

Among a hundred other end of days scenarios.

Know what the difference between plastic and oil? (not just crude or motor, but cooking, lubricating, buttering?)

Let's release a designer consumer that would require very little mutation to end humanity. Do it already.

Depending on your outlook this might just make the notion more enticing.

[-] teft@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago

Man, Vincent and Jules were some really fun guys.

[-] SomeGuy69@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Step 1: make everything from plastics

Step 2: create plastic eating fungus to get rid of the trash

Step 3: create serious damage to all parts of our society and technology, as plastic eating fungus spores get everywhere, including our food chain and your brain.

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[-] Valsa@mander.xyz 6 points 9 months ago

This is really bugging me. The article claims the fungus is an edible mushroom, but Pestalotiopsis (the spores on the right) is an endophytic, microscopic ascomycete. Not a mushroom and certainly not edible. So why is there a picture of Pluteus on the left? I can only imagine the author googled "Pestalotiopsis mushroom" and grabbed the first picture that came up.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

Can you eat the mushrooms later? Circle of life!

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this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
938 points (98.4% liked)

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