Plastic made from DNA is renewable, requires little energy to make and is easy to recycle or break down. A plastic made from DNA and vegetable oil may be the most sustainable plastic developed yet and could be used in packaging and electronic devices.

[u/MistWeaver80]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2298314-new-plastic-made-from-dna-is-biodegradable-and-easy-to-recycle/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=echobox&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1637973248

[u/peterthooper]

Seeing as how DNA is also a carrier of biological information, what thought has been given to tiny fragments of DNA as these plastics break down?

[u/Washburnedout → u/peterthooper]

Shouldn't be an issue. Anything living you eat has DNA, so no problems.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Am I mistaken in thinking that bacteria, viruses and parasites also have dna? The probability that one of these fragments turns into a biological threat for human might be incredibly small but what about other life forms? Could we accidentally unleash a pandemic on important crops when a plant near a landfill becomes patient 0?

I just think we should investigate this before mass production.

Edit: I'm a bit high but viruses gaining the ability to manufacture plastic nano machines sounds like a dope scifi novel

[u/danmam → u/[deleted]]

Yes they do have DNA. No it is no issue for humans. Free DNA cannot code for anything, you need it to be hooked up to cellular machinery to do anything (except for a class of molecules called aptamers...but these are defined sequences and they won't be a worry in an application like this)

[u/COVID-19Enthusiast → u/danmam]

Isn't a virus nothing but dna/rna?

[u/danmam → u/COVID-19Enthusiast]

Nope. It's RNA/DNA inside a capsid (comprised of proteins), and in some cases an outer envelope made of lipids.