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

Science Memes

10905 readers
814 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
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] zout@kbin.social 59 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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 (2 children)

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 (1 children)

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.

[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

While it would be great to phase them out, we have to work with the world we have. One that wont switch off plastic production overnight and one that is already thoroughly contaminated. Something is going to be needed to break down what is already out there and minimize the damage of what continues to be produced.

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

You get a similar result by burning it for electricity and that removes coal/gas from the grid.

[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

Youre not burning microplastics dispersed through water as fuel.