Yale students find Rain Forest organisms that can degrade plastics

redneF
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Yale students find Rain Forest organisms that can degrade plastics

 

 

 

 

New Haven, Conn. — Organisms discovered by Yale undergraduates growing within fungi in the Amazon Rainforest can degrade polyurethane,

 a findings that may lead to innovative ways to reduce waste in the world's landfills.  * Yale Edu News*

http://opac.yale.edu/news/article.aspx?id=8766

 

 

 

 

 

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Keep those things away from

Keep those things away from my condoms!

 


Beyond Saving
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Ktulu wrote:Keep those

Ktulu wrote:

Keep those things away from my condoms!

 

 


Jeffrick
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On the other hand...

 

 

 

                           All kidding aside (did I say that),  taken out of their natural enviroment could turn them into a Frankensteins monster:  Imagine an unnoticed growth happening in a Car factory, a plane factory or even a condom factory.  It does sound like a great idea for landfill sites but let us be carefull about letting that genie out of the bottle.

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re:: Inadequate (Thread's topic)

 re:: Inadequate 

 

   If human history is any kind  of indicator. Distressingly inadequate for the lungs of the planet ;  they are still screwed. 

 

 


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I say we recycle the

I say we recycle the plastics first, before turning loose this potentially terrible plastic-eating fungus. They're made out of crude oil and the oil is not going back. Isolating the enzyme by which the fungus does its magic is a better idea. But still, what is the byproduct? Usually when a plastic breaks down or gets depolymerized, I guess it breaks down on tar, oil, petrol, benzene, alcohols or something like that. Which is not a nice thing to have it soaked into ground waters. 

Recycling is basically a question of available energy plus using different technology for each kind of substance to be recycled. But still, I'd love to see something like small solar-powered robots, roaming the landfills like ants and picking bits of plastic and metals out of the heaps for recyclation. Or a state-enforced management of resources.

 

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