Tar is very problematic health-wise. Banned in some countries for this reason.
Comment on When you see danger coming
tormeh@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
This is so great and so bad at the same time. We’re gonna have to go back to using tar and shit for things we actually want to last. That’s not going to be cheap…
Prime_Minister_Keyes@lemm.ee 1 day ago
CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 1 day ago
I mean, wood already biodegrades quite readily, yet we are able to make some pretty long lasting things out of it anyway. Having a bacteria that can break down some variety of plastic doesn’t really imply that all plastic things are going to rot away like old fruit.
BussyCat@lemmy.world 1 day ago
We also cover wood in hydrocarbons to stop it from being broken down, if a bacteria can break down long hydrocarbon chains we are kind of fucked
azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Dry wood will last centuries without any oiling. Which is good news for timber frames because those are left untreated. As long as your house is water-tight, the frame will be fine because wood rot simlly can’t metabolize in typical indoors humidity evels.
What we typically protect wood from is water, mechanical wear, UV, and stains. But even a furniture piece will not always get treated on internal parts where wear and wood expansion are no concerns.
BussyCat@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
And how do you keep the wood from being exposed to moisture without petroleum derivatives? Like technically it is possible but to build enough homes to that standard for even 1/1000 of the population is unreasonable
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Is this a false equivalence?
Is the rate at which wood rots indicative of how quickly plastic would rot?
Also plastic tends to be very thin. Like if bacteria can denature 0.1mm per year that’s lots of years for a timber beam but a few months for plastic packaging.