Plastic Eating mushrooms

Plastic Eating Bacteria

Alright, so one of the things that we know we need to do is clean up our oceans and handle the existing plastic crises. RD dropped a hint a little while back that China was working on a method not just to clean up the great Pacific Plastic Patch, but also to use the plastic as fuel for electric generators.

First of all, plastic itself is unsuitable for burning directly due to harmful and toxic chemicals that are released when heat is applied. That means that if we want to use it as a fuel source, we first have to convert it into a substance that is stable and not harmful. It is particularly resistant to be being broken down using most measures, but the introduction to fungi and bacteria that consume it changes this significantly.

The Mushroom video focuses on turning the plastic into edible food, however I am of the opinion that the health of your body not only depends on the food you eat, but all the food your food eats... and I think having plastic one rung down on the food chain isn’t a very well thought out scenario for healthy food.

So, basically instead of food, what you have is an available fuel source to burn in an incinerator that in turn heats water and runs a steam powered generator. If we can perfect this model, then we can create an environment where salvage ships are competing for plastic garbage. Give people a monetary reason to clean up the ocean and it will get done faster and more efficiently than any non-profit organization or multi-national outreach BS.

Power plants could be built using Oil Platforms right in the middle of the ocean, and electricity stored in batteries, or used to power desalination plants on the platform, or honestly just expand out the oil platforms themselves as an off-shore berthing option for Ocean freighters or other ships, similar to Truck Stops along our interstate system. Not feasible if you have to bring in diesel to run generators, but very cost effective if you have a readily available energy source in all the garbage already dumped in the Ocean.