system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How did we create non biodegradable things like plastic from what I'd assume is biodegradable materials?
gpt
Plastics have properties which make them resistant to biodegradation.

Firstly, plastics are water resistant. Without moisture, bacteria/fungi cannot grow on it. Also, any digestive enzymes released by these organisms will be repelled from the surface.

Secondly, producing plastics is very energy-inefficient compared to biological cellulose or other biomaterials. So nature has never bothered to evolve plastics and the enzymes to digest plastics.


Also, plastics are very similar to wood (cellulose). When wood was first evolved, there were very few organisms capable of digesting it. This led to dead trees piling up everywhere and filling the earth with wood, which all eventually became coal. This period of earth’s history is the Carboniferous period, where almost all coal on earth came from this pile of dead trees.

If plastics become as widespread as wood was, something will evolve to digest the abundant source of energy.