Engineered microbes can produce biodegradable plastics at lower cost and environmental impact than plant-based plastics
If you look up from your screen and glance around you, it's nearly certain that there will be something made of synthetic plastic within arm's reach (maybe even the clothing you're wearing). Humans have only been manufacturing plastics for about 100 years, but we have already produced about 8,300 million metric tons of it since the 1950s—that's roughly the weight of 25,000 Empire State Buildings. And, because the vast majority of plastics do not biodegrade, nearly all of that century's worth of plastic remains somewhere on planet Earth, from the guts of fish and seabirds to water-poisoning landfills to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And even if we can't see them, microplastics now permeate the air we breathe and can end up in our lungs, and their health effects are not yet known.