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Comment by barkingcat | Hacker News Reader

Yup! those fiberglass boat hulls? dissolved in hours!

And then the ocean water and plastic-eating enzymes make their way into the fresh water supply, dissolving plastic pipes and appliances everywhere. Sounds like a J. G. Ballard novel.

PVC and ABS are used in water pipes, PET is used in bottles. It seems unlikely that these bacteria would have the ability to break down 3 completely different types of ‘plastic’.

HDPE is used in both plastic bottles and freshwater plumbing (under the name PEX).

From the Wikipedia page on PEX (Cross-linked polyethylene)

> It is also used for natural gas and _offshore oil applications_, chemical transportation, and transportation of sewage and slurries.

So yeah, a bacteria capable of dissolving that shouldn't be released anywhere near an offshore oil pipeline.

Tyvek is also polyethylene.

Life ... uh - you know the rest

Even widespread destruction of any one of those would cause massive destruction to humanity as machines, pumps, pipes, water plants, sewage plants, transportation systems, and more fail. Water touching plastic components are everywhere.

I suppose plastics are a bit like antibiotics. The more we use it, the more nature will adapt.

On the other hand, we probably still have decades, if not hundreds of years, before we see the full effect. Plenty of time to prepare alternatives that doesn't carry a usable form of energy inside.

Maybe something like this?:

https://zoltek.com/carbon-fiber/what-is-oxidized-fiber/

It's a good thing evolution is a myth /s

> It seems unlikely that these bacteria would have the ability to break down 3 completely different types of ‘plastic’.

FTA: "The research scanned more than 200 million genes found in DNA samples taken from the environment and found 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 different types of plastic."

Right - presumably those 10 different types of plastic are broken down by different enzymes among those 30,000, which are found in different genes among those 200 million.

"my name is Alice"

Maybe.. not a terrible idea. It would get rid of plastic which is probably both the best and worst thing we have created.

Fiberglass is not plastic. It’s glass, bonded by epoxy resins. I guess epoxies are a kind of plastic, but they’re completely different chemicals than the polymers typically used in plastic items, and so likely would be immune to enzymes in question.

Unless the bugs evolve, but it's not like they have a track record of that /s

If they're completely different chemicals, then it's just as likely that one of the many bugs already in the environment will evolve to eat epoxy. The plastic-eating bugs wouldn't have any particular advantage.

Maybe not the fiberglass… but those bugs might eat all kinds of other plastic.

I mean could you imagine bacteria in the wild that enjoys snacking on PET, polypropylene or ABS? Society might literally crumble!

There are so many plastic water pipes and buried cables

Plenty of fiberglass uses polyester resin rather than epoxy.

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