Researchers at the Catholic University in Piacenza, Italy, have made a major breakthrough in the use of plastic-eating bacteria. Specifically, these bacteria eat “forever chemicals” — otherwise known as PFAS — that have infected our entire ecosystem, our farms, and our bodies through fire retardant and a million other applications. At the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry conference in May, Professor Edoardo Puglisi detailed the research process by which his team gathered samples of soil from a particularly contaminated region and isolated bacterium in those soils which might be effective in eating the plastic waste. They fall into the four categories of Micrococcus, Rhodanobacter, Pseudoxanthomonas and Achromobacter, and Puglisi says “they are usually not harmful to humans.” So we might be able to clean up our own pollution without unintended second-order consequences! On the other hand, our demise might come in the attempt at a solution. We’ll find out soon enough. …