My last post was centered around Co2, a major contributor to climate change. I realized it was sounding quite negative… because it is. However, I don’t want the outcome of these posts to just make people feel bad and upset, I want them to give hope and inspiration to what could happen in the future. I’m going to focus these next posts on a problem, but then an innovation or way we can reduce the effects of climate change, not completely, but immensely .
For this one, I’m going to talk about plastic, which we all know is a huge contributor to pollution and global effects on the environment as well as all ecosystems. So why are the effects of plastic so detrimental? First, it’s everywhere; since plastic can take up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfills, it is constantly multiplying in size. It litters streets, natural habitats, and what’s not on land ends up in the oceans, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, for example.
Since the mass production of plastic, which started around six decades ago, 8.3 billion metric tons of it have been created, 91% of which wasn’t afterwords recycled. The sheer amount of it has affected wildlife everywhere. Plastic is found in the guts of 90% of sea birds, the stomachs of 50% of sea turtles, and is even choking whales to death. If plastic use is not reduced, by 2050, there will be more plastic in certain bodies of water than there are fish inhabiting them.
Another problem with plastic is that it’s the main product for fracking, a method for extracting oil or gas. Fracking pollutes the air, land, and water, creates sinkholes, and raises pressure in rocks (which makes them more susceptible to earthquakes). The plastic created from fracking is usually made for single use, and both the process and what it creates threaten the effects of climate change.
So what can be done? While we can all try our best to reduce the amount of plastic we use, may it be using less plastic bags, water bottles, straws, etc., it won’t do anything to reduce the amount of plastic already existing in the streets, lands, and oceans. However, thanks to a team of researchers in Japan, a solution may be on the rise.
These researchers have been able to create a plastic eating enzyme made of polyethylene terephthalate, PETase, that can break down plastic in a matter of days. Let me remind you, it can take up to 1,000 years for plastic to degrade, around 450 years for plastic water bottles alone. What’s crazy about this discovery is that it was completely accidental; the enzyme is a mutant of another experiment gone wrong. This is how it works: the enzyme eats away at hard plastics, bottles for example, and breaks it down to its original elements, which can be used to make recycled plastic. While this is all still new discovery, scientists are eager to learn more about how the mutated enzyme came to evolve, and what they can do to possibly improve it to break down all kinds of plastic, and at an even faster and more effective rate.
There is, however, a caveat to this accidental groundbreaking discovery. Because it is able to break down plastic in a matter of days, it may give people incentive to produce more of it because they know it will be able to be broken down. It may also give people less incentive to reduce their own personal use of plastic. This possible solution could be taken advantage of to sustain the way we are living rather than to reverse the damage we’ve done.
That being said, for as many people that try to take advantage of this, I think there will be just as many that use it to its fullest potential. Combine reducing plastic use with increased recycling with reducing littering with an enzyme that’s literally eating plastic, and you can get something of monumental change in plastic’s effect on people, wildlife, and the effects of climate change.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2018/04/23/five-ways-that-plastics-harm-the-environment-and-one-way-they-may-help/#240a2f2467a0
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-bottle-waste-eating-enzyme-mutant/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180416155619.htm