Yes I read that. But what about the plastic that are already in the world ? I think that a way getting ride of that would be a much more exciting discovery.
If there's a plant derived alternative with most of the benefits without the major downsides we could start reducing, perhaps to near zero, the amount produced from oil. That seems like a pretty significant and exciting discovery. A possibility of plastic that degrades gracefully and doesn't linger in the environment. Even if we're left with some specialist uses that must still come from oil it's world changing. For once, world changing for the better.
Hopefully we will also find a way to get rid of all the oil derived plastics already out there.