lignin

And they also reduce in digestive quality significantly as more of the material is lignin.

The great bulk of the mass of a tree is cellulose and lignin, and that comes straight out of photosynthesis and from atmospheric CO2 and ground water.

It's like the evolution of lignin-consuming fungi needs to start all over: this time the fungi in question needs to be able to both break down lignin, and be radiation-resistant.

But then at the end of the Carboniferous Era fungi learned how to break down lignin.

That first lignin-eating fungus must have had quite a population explosion when it entered the world.

And yes, there are lignin nanoparticles and you can detect them in water.

The biodegradability thing is pretty funny too, again human waste absolutely pales in comparison to trees and lignin, at least water bottles can't reproduce.

Even allowing for the lignin revolution and decomposer lag, that's barely sufficient time to replenish fossil fuel stocks for a do-over should humans fail.

Also, the key chemical wasn't cellulose, but rather lignin.

Is it the cellulose (structure), or the lignin (electrolyte)?

Even if we include things like hydroxyapatite in teeth, or even lignin, those are more like byproducts of biology than active biology itself.

Recreating the lignite era process could be as easy as genetically engineering an alternative,presently indigestable version of lignin.

Lignin is an astoundingly complex polymer* that plants use as "concrete" to create their woody cells.

Where is the dividing line between cellulose, lignin and "plastics"?

The "pollution" of cyanobacteria creating an Oxygen rich atmosphere or of lignin rich trees littering the world with their branches, trunks, and stumps that wouldn't be biodegradable for tens of millions of years, all of that pales in comparison to the raw brutality of the food chain.

Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin.

If hot acetic acid can be made from plastic waste, I think that almost solves the additional recycling stream problem for Lignin-Vitrimer.

Lignin-Vitrimer can be recycled with hot acetic acid.