What Can We Do With All the Plastic Polluting Our Environment - Eat It?

By Lance Winslow

image: depositphotos

Although plastic water bottles are quite thin and decompose rapidly in the environment due to UV rays in sunlight, not all plastic de-materializes quickly. Worse, there are so many different types of plastic, and so many products made with plastic, that they have ended up all over our planet, including throughout our oceans. But what if we could collect all of this plastic, put it into one place, and either recycle it, or turn it into something else?

Well, I'd like to talk to you about this for a few moments if I might. You see, there was an interesting article recently in PhysOrg (dot) titled; " Amazon fungi found that eat polyurethane, even without oxygen," published on February 3, 2012 which stated; "Until now polyurethane has been considered non-biodegradable, but a group of students from Yale University in the US has found fungi that will not only eat and digest it, they will do so even in the absence of oxygen."

Why not let nature figure out a way to eat polyurethane plastic for us? In a way it would be a new symbiotic relationship, and one which brings us back full circle in the eco-recycling arena. The organism would be completely happy doing this work, and it is perfectly suited to do so, meanwhile humans win by eliminating these wasted plastics, and the environment wins also without the added pollution. It is interesting that we will be able to take a man-made product and polymeric chains, and let nature break it back down very quickly into usable molecules which are benign.

It seems science, and nature working together can solve almost any problem. Isn't it interesting that mankind keeps creating problems, and nature keeps coming up with a way to solve them. Perhaps in our scientific and academic arrogance, we too easily forget that evolution, and nature is an extremely powerful force, after all it has created us. It only makes sense that we should utilize, and adopt best management practices wherever possible, and whenever nature shows us her hand.

So, what can we do with all of this plastic which is polluting our environment, polluting our oceans, and causing challenges for future generations? Well, why not hire Mother Nature to eat it, and this fungus which was discovered will be happy and content breaking down this plastic, and harnessing the energy in the process to live and prosper. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative eBook on the Future of Recycling. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

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