An enzyme that digests plastic could boost recycling
I'm fascinated by this. It took 60 million years after trees evolved for microbes to evolve that could digest them[1]. The resulting strata of undigested tree are now most of our coal. Now of course, if a tree dies and is left where it fell, it is usually digested entirely in a number of years by microbial life.<p>What would happen if a microbe evolved that could feed itself from plastic? And what if it got out of the lab? Imagine all the plastic items in the World suddenly as susceptible to rot as wood. It would fundamentally change almost every aspect our existence, in a very short amount of time.<p>[1]:  <a href="http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/07/the-fantastically-strange-origin-of-most-coal-on-earth/" rel="nofollow">http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/07/the-fanta...</a>