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Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic by asow92 on Monday December 20, 2021 @01:11PM (#29627878)
> It also will require a massive shift in our material usage. Bacteria breaking down that plastic bag in the ocean is great. Bacteria setting in on construction, medical devices, or your NES is not so ideal.

That's a great point, and one that may make material planners think twice about using plastics over other materials like metals, woods, or plasters in their projects.

Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic by outworlder on Monday December 20, 2021 @01:57PM (#29628562)
> over other materials like (...) woods,

Plenty of bugs eat wood. From fungi to termites. And yet we can still use wood for construction.

Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic by asow92 on Monday December 20, 2021 @02:38PM (#29629117)
Some woods like cedar are more resistant. Some kinds of ash are more or less susceptible to beetle damage. It all depends of the application and environment, just like plastics might in this scenario.
Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic by pharke on Monday December 20, 2021 @04:25PM (#29630494)
The scary one is medical devices. Plastics were a godsend, enabling the mass production of disposable medical equipment that effectively solved a lot of tricky sterilization problems. There are a lot of other things that plastics are the best option for, we would suffer a fairly major technological set back if we were suddenly faced with a plague of plastic eating microbes.
Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic by louky on Monday December 20, 2021 @01:53PM (#29628486)
Re:Bugs are evolving to eat plastic by tlholaday on Monday December 20, 2021 @03:54PM (#29630156)
Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis overwrite compellingly, if the Goodreads excerpt is representative.