[ WP ] The world is rapidly changing as the plague of our era is spreading fast . But it does n't affect humans . It eats plastic .

The strain of bacteria was officially designated'B-1999' while it was under development, and the name just kind of stuck. `` BINS,'' as it is more popularly known, was introduced to the Pacific Garbage Patch in 2019 with great fanfare. As with all over-hyped marketing campaigns, its creators promised that this one would change the world. 
 
 No one knows where `` ground zero'' is; best guess is Sydney, but Hong Kong and Singapore were hit just as bad. Somewhere in the vast expanse of the ocean, a ship plowed through the garbage patch and got a six pack ring snagged on a propeller or something. That piece of garbage was dragged back into a harbor somewhere, and the bacteria spread. It feasted on fiberglass hulls of the boats before spreading to the linings of car windows and then plastic airplane seat cushions and armrests. By the time anyone started looking at the mysterious epidemic of broken pipes and trash bags, it had gone worldwide. 
 
 There was widespread panic. No one really understood just how many things in our lives were made out of plastic until they were gone. Just imagine doing laundry on a normal day. Your plastic hamper has broken down into a twisted web of putty. The gasket on your washing machine has vanished and the door no longer closes properly. BINS has spread to your bottle of washing detergent, leaving only a sticky blue puddle dripping off the side of the shelf. And not to mention that your spendex shorts look more like cobwebs. Now imagine doing *every single other chore* in the same way. It was a nightmare. 
 
 Eventually, though, we adapted. As humans always do. We ’ d had great lives before plastics became the primary component in everything, so we just went back. Plumbers bustled about, replacing PVC with good old fashion metal pipes. Liquids were sold in tin cans or glass bottles. “ Paper or plastic? ” was no longer a choice. And we went about our lives. 
 
 In some ways, it was a good thing. We grew up as a society and became more conscious of our choices. Bottles of water shipped from Fiji became infeasible, so we learned to be satisfied with our local tap water again. Flying fresh peaches from Brazil in the middle of winter was n't a possibility, so we went back to fresh, locally sourced produce and good old fashioned canned goods. Even as the consumer society we'd built came crumbling down, people somehow became... I do n't know. *Happier*, I guess. No longer slaves to our phones and computers ( each of which contain plastic parts ), and just satisfied to take a walk through the woods together. Removing plastic from our lives provided that final impetus to take a step back as a society and re-evaluate what was really important. And for the most part, we've made the right choice. 
 
 The government says it will be over in a few months. BINS will eat itself to death on a non-sustainable food source, and eventually die out. We ’ ll be able to start producing plastic again, and maybe eventually return to our old lives. But the question now is: do we really want to? 

