smallworlnd on Nostr: Bacteria and fungi already have genes that code for things capable of degrading ...

Bacteria and fungi already have genes that code for things capable of degrading plastic and other industrial waste. It's just that it's a much tougher source of food to break open, and almost always requires more easily-digestible food in the environment to supplement and fuel extracellular digestion of the tougher stuff.

Saturated environments like those impose a big negative selection, so the locked up food source sits there for a while. But eventually someone will move in and make use of it, albeit very slowly. I stumbled upon a pile of old asphalt shingles in the woods many years ago. It appeared more degraded than from weathering alone so it became the basis for a research project later on. We found all sorts of microbes expressing all sorts of genes beyond the big family of peroxidases in order to eat break down the medium. Many of those genes are also involved in recycling celluloses/hemicelluloses/ligins.