For the Article of The Week this week, we discuss an article that outlines how cows have the capacity to break down plastic in a natural way that is much faster and cleaner then the ways we currently deal with plastic recycling. The invention of plastic has been a blessing and a curse for our society. Plastic has allowed us to develop various containers and materials that make our modern lives possible but we didn’t think about how we would dispose of all this plastic once people were done with it.

Our current solutions are not sustainable. We try to recycle some plastic but only a very small percentage is fully recycled. Most plastic is burned which releases harmful byproducts into the atmosphere or we simply bury the plastic and push our garbage problem onto the next generation. Neither of these solutions are sustainable, so finding natural ways to dispose of plastic is crucial for ensuring our world to shift towards more sustainable lifestyles. With that in mind, it was recently found that a bacteria in cows’ GI tract has the capacity to breakdown plastic. This is great news and gives us hope that sometime soon, we will have more natural and sustainable ways to deal with the excess plastic in today’s world. 

To learn more about cows and how they are doing to help save our planet, listen to this week’s podcast.