It would actually be scary to me if an organism evolves to rapidly eat all plastic. Imagine plastic rust… ugh, its just a terrifying idea. You think mantianing a car is difficult now, wait until you have to check the integrity of any “plastic” component
Well there is a simple remedy, and it is the same like for rust. Keep it dry. All microbial live needs water just as much as larger liveforms. If it is dry it can’t spoil, even if there is microorganisms on it. They might be alive, but they’ll be in stasis without sufficent accessible water. accessibility is also important here. E.g. salty water or water with high amounts of sugar are not useful to most microorganisms.
We all know how easy it is to keep a car dry in the PNW.
Bro rust isnt the issue up there its damn moss growing on your car. If it sits too long (or even if it doesn) shit starts looking like treebeard.
Wood didn’t rot in the carboniferous era. It used to build up in dense layers that became our modern coal veins.
At some point microorganisms evolved to exploit that vast resource. Now coal can no longer generate naturally and we have to keep wood structures dry or painted lest they be reclaimed by the Eafth.
I don’t know if there’s any reason it couldn’t happen to plastics. We’ve created the niche already, how long until something exploits it?
