When, not if, plastic begins to rot like wood, modern living is in for a rude surprise.
@custos3249
Really not surprising every time this happens. When lignin evolved in trees, they became the plastic pollution of the epoch until an organism evolved to break it down and use the energy ancient trees put into creating it in the first place.
@tomix18
If microorganisms can develop plastic consumption, it means that we will no longer be able to use certain materials in marine environments, at least not in the long term: boats, diving and measuring equipment.
@corbbing
"Degrades clothing in minutes..." Imagine that the seas are swarming with this fungi, and you enter the ocean to go swim.
Plastic pollution is a huge problem on every continent, and increasingly in our oceans. Land based microbes have been discovered that have learnt how to digest certain plastics, but new research has now discovered that nature is at it in our oceans as well! So has evolution gifted us a solution to the Great Pacific Garbage patch?