The idea of plastic eating microbes frankly scares me. Great for microplastics in the environment an everything that means, but horrible for burried plastic infastructure.
Almost all gas pipe, mile for mile, installed since 1970 is plastic. Buried cables, both communications and power, coated in plastic. Extensive use from an engineering perspective of how inert plastic and how it doesn't decay. Far, far superior to steel for anything buried.
We are living on borrowed time once life figures out how to eat plastic. Houses will go boom from gas leaks and the internet and power will start to fall.
futurebird