'Super-enzyme' speeds up breakdown of plastic, researchers say | Hacker News Reader

'Super-enzyme' speeds up breakdown of plastic, researchers say

nytimes.com

13 pointsbookofjoe7 comments

Plastic, unlike aluminum, cannot be infinitely recycled. ~75% of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today. Where as only 10% of all plastic produced has been recycled.

The shift will be back towards reusables. Coke was once served in glass bottles - but centralized for increased profit due to invention — plastic was cheaper than glass to produce and transport.

Now, if the consumer provides their reusable, a company like Coke only needs to transport concentrate, which is far lighter than shipping a bottle of mostly water. That will also decrease the cost of the beverage to the end consumer. That’s a win - win for the planet (no packaging) and the price of the beverage (saves consumers money).

I’ve expounded on this more here: https://www.samuelianrosen.com/blog/2018/12/16/the-future-of...

My solution, starting with water as our first product, is here: https://findtap.com/

Doesn't coke want to control water quality for consistency reasons? This is why coke from a fountain is almost always worse than coke from a can / bottle.

They do.

One of the reasons the bottling companies were decentralized was because consumers preferred the taste of their local water.

Fountain machines have a sophisticated filtration system that is supposed to completely standardize the taste of the product. The company that supplies these filters also work with Starbucks for the same reason. BUT, often the owners do not change the filters regularly, which leads to an inconsistent / negative taste.

> BUT, often the owners do not change the filters regularly, which leads to an inconsistent / negative taste.

I can't believe filter makers can't employ technology to prevent use of filter outside the guaranteed parameters - like, for example, printer toner cartridge makers do.

Customers have had the option to use bottled water concentrate (and supply their own water) for ages, and yet bottled water use has increased significantly over the last 40 years. I suspect the issue is not that simple.

Bottled water sales have significantly increased in the last 10-20 years.

“In 2000, each American was drinking 53.7 gallons of carbonated soda a year, equal to 573 12-ounce cans a year, 11 a week. Soda consumption in 2015 was down to 38.9 gallons per person.”

Then add in the Flints, Newarks, Hoosick Falls, and more that will soon be discovered, where water quality is the issue. Bottled water has become the backup / secondary drinking system to our broken tap water system. We need to fix the problem.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/api.nationalgeographic.com/dist...

If anyone is interested in learning more contact me through my website. My link is in my bio.

It’s counter-intuitive, but one way to responsibly handle waste plastic is to secure it into large ‘bricks’ and landfill it. This has three big benefits: re-sequestration of extracted resources/potential energy, removal of the possibility of ecosystem harm (breaking down into micro-plastics), and isolation from any future emergence of bacteria capable of breaking the material down (in effect a massive release of additional energy to the atmosphere).

Aside from recycling, perhaps this enzyme could be useful in reprocessing waste plastics en-mass for re-sequestration.

As we transition to use sustainable materials in lieu of plastic, and until we phase out the use of fossil fuels where plastics will continue to be a byproduct whether useful or not, we’re gonna need disposal solutions for plastic for some time.

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