Microbes and insects are actively evolving to consume our plastic waste. However, right now they are only able to breakdown bio-degradable materials. As we have blanketed the planet in synthetic polymers over the last several decades, nature is experiencing massive selective pressure to adapt. Organisms with short life spans are mutating rapidly to treat our trash as a new, abundant food source. So, if we required many of our plastics to be constructed from degradable substances, we might start to turn around this challenge:
