Ants are interesting here because they carry N-times their body weight
so they function as excellent collectors. In contrast, engineering
something like kelp flies or fruit flies would imply insects directly
digest waste plastics which is less likely. Plastics can be recycled
with heat or cold plasma, both are high energy mechanisms. However
biology is nanotechnology which can bypass high energy expenditure.
Sure, a symbiotic relationship between ants instinctively collecting
plastic in their environment, and a fungus which digests the plastic
to then feed the ants is hypothetically possible.
There have been hundreds of kickstarter-style funded projects aimed at
eliminating environmental plastics, some claiming to reuse the
plastics for new products. These projects have raised tens of
thousands and beyond millions based on individual internet pledges
alone, not by industry or government grant. The project aimed at
collecting plastic with a net attached to a floating tube (a design
derided by many) raised over $2 million as a simple kickstarter, the
project was recently launched into the Pacific and was all over the
news (and v1.0 broke down).
https://www.theoceancleanup.com
The microbead waters act was signed into federal law in 2015 and takes
full effect in 2019 and may include funding for waste reduction. The
California Safe Drinking Water Act was passed in 2018 and includes an
amount of funding to eliminate microplastics. The funding is out
there for those who can experiment or prototype new solutions. Pure
research projects as proposed in this thread never work immediately
out of the box but lead in better directions with technology over a
few decades.
The fact is that plastics are entering every level of the food chain
with likely horrible results.
https://rochmanlab.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/rohman-et-al-2015-sci-rep.pdf
A significant percentage of plastic waste collects at the shoreline
therefore a solution can be land-based as well as sea based.
On 1/27/19, A some body again <
yuriy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> So basically you are supposed to engineer a fungus or bacteria that will
> entice the ant with chemotaxants akin to those leaves (or something other
> and more potent) to bring our trash to its colony. It seems like a bitter
> trade with all of the biotoxins that could evolve out of this sinister
> plot. Even with specific tunnels the leachate will find its way in the
> water table. All of a sudden you'd be facing a colony collapse while seeing
>
> an en environmental disaster with bioaccumulation of whatever and however
> plastics break down.
>
> *"Meanwhile other species such as small marine organisms have been recently
>
> shown to actively seek out microplastics to eat (for reasons
> unknown, possibly 'smell' or color), even if this results in their own
> starvation since eating plastics is harmful and non-nutritious. Therefore
> small organisms do actively forage for microplastics even at their own
> irrational expense of energy. The missing aspect is some biomechanism to
> degrade the micro-waste after collection."*
> Had you referenced what you meant I wouldn't have to look for a publication
>
> on the topic <
http://sci-hub.tw/10.1007%2Fs00227-015-2619-7>. They don't