As programmers we are always attuned to thinking about the edge cases and endgames, so I wonder:
Would be possible that such a fungus proliferated into a sort of "termite for plastic", feeding on plastic piping (in houses or cars maybe) and the like.
Of course house owners already deal with mold so I suppose this would just be another one.
The article suggests introducing it into landfills to eat the plastic. Kudzu was introduced to America to control soil erosion. The invasive vine now spreads at a rate of 150,000 acres a year, so it certainly accomplished goal A.
The ability of bacteria to consume and destroy infrastructure is bounded by energy and resource considerations. Observe that we use wood for structures all the time, a material that can be consumed by any number of very common bacteria that we don't need to hypothesize about, yet properly cared-for wood can last hundreds of years.
True, but we didn't care for plastic the same way, because we didn't need to. Until now. It's not the end of the world, of course, but we should prepare for this problem.
In europe we have a similar problem with japanese knotweed. In the UK it's classed as "controlled waste" and has to be disposed of using chemicals. It's illegal to wilfully spread it.
The article is scant on details, but it does say that researchers want to use the enzyme extracted from the fungus to break down plastics, not introduce the fungus itself to our piles of garbage. This makes it a bit different from the case of the Kudzu vine.
The article says that the fungus digests polyurethane - maybe if the fungus is focused on one type of plastic that will only be used for disposable products, the problem can be avoided?
Would be possible that such a fungus proliferated into a sort of "termite for plastic", feeding on plastic piping (in houses or cars maybe) and the like.
Of course house owners already deal with mold so I suppose this would just be another one.
The article suggests introducing it into landfills to eat the plastic. Kudzu was introduced to America to control soil erosion. The invasive vine now spreads at a rate of 150,000 acres a year, so it certainly accomplished goal A.