Bacteria that eat plastic

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theitalianhenchman

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 28, 2017
Messages
47
So, basically they discover that a bacteria can eat plastic, like the plastic of the bottle and similar.
So I was wondering if that could be helpful in the refining too, people should not incinerating ic's any more, this will mean less pollution, less health risk when breathing the fumes from combustion, and the possibility to do that even in more popolated areas. Just to say; not sure if that will be available for the population too thou.
 
I've heard about a bacteria that can eat ABS or PET, but that isn't the type of plastic we have in IC:s.
It also takes a long time, months to years, to break down the thin plastic in a bottle. The copper in the boards and components would probably kill off the bacteria long before they would have digested any plastics unless we treat them with nutrition and new fresh water to live in.

I don't think I will be around when we could see a practical usage of plastic eating bacteria in refining.

Ok, I'm starting to become a cranky old geezer. :mrgreen:

Göran
 
g_axelsson said:
I've heard about a bacteria that can eat ABS or PET, but that isn't the type of plastic we have in IC:s.
It also takes a long time, months to years, to break down the thin plastic in a bottle. The copper in the boards and components would probably kill off the bacteria long before they would have digested any plastics unless we treat them with nutrition and new fresh water to live in.

I don't think I will be around when we could see a practical usage of plastic eating bacteria in refining.

Ok, I'm starting to become a cranky old geezer. :mrgreen:

Göran

Ouch, you definitevely killed my dreams there, cranky old sir!! :lol:
 
There are worms as well, I think some kind of silk worm that they noticed will and do eat all kinds of plastics. Wish I had the link, I watched it on a youtube documentary from Discovery Channel or one of them new discovery type programs.

One of the subjects they talked about and were testing with them involved PCBs' and electronics, yes they were eating it, but you need a whole lot of them and when they grow they cocoon to become moths so no more eating until the eggs from the adult moths hatch.
 
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