Re:Yale Discovers a Fungus That Eats Plastic
by masklinn on Friday February 03, 2012 @03:03PM
(#3548675)
> When all those carbon-based life forms died all those years ago, there was nothing to break them down.
There was nothing to break them down not because such a thing did not exist but because they were protected from those organisms: they were buried under anoxic conditions (complete lack of oxygen) or beneath acidic waters, shielding the organic matter from that which would normally degrade it by feeding on it.
When all those carbon-based life forms died all those years ago, there was nothing to break them down. So they persisted, and the result is oil and coal.
I've often wondered whether a similar thing would happen to all this plastic lying around. I suppose it's still sort of a toss-up, but now I'm at least sort of convinced that it's vaguely possible.