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Comment by abcc8 | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking the same. Worst case scenario with a solution like this one is that these organisms get into the wild, gain more mutations, and then rapidly release a large volume of carbon, currently sequestered as plastic, into the atmosphere. Or, plastic-tropic organisms used as a weapon, sprayed over cities, etc.

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Note: the article talks about an enzyme, which is a simple protein. They might manufacture it via organic means, but the enzyme by itself has no capacity to reproduce or mutate.

That is true, but the best and easiest way to make a huge mass of a specific enzyme is to grow it in something, either bacteria or yeast. If it is in an organism, the organism can escape into the wild.

That's a much smaller threat than if the organism itself were to be applied directly to plastics.

Designer organisms aren't generally well-suited to spreading in the wild and even if they were, they could be engineered to require a certain dependency that they would die without. But yes, still theoretically it's possible.

Perhaps plastic should start being compressed into bricks for long term storage that does not lead to leaching.

An enzyme is a protein molecule, not a living thing. Probably the biggest risk is that some wildlife or fish may be allergic to it.

Did I miss something? What organism are you referring to?

An enzyme is a protein not an organism

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