Cost will be the ultimate factor in whether this someday becomes a widely used plastic-making process; Genomatica says it's not sure how much its E. coli–produced BDO will cost, noting that results thus far have been confined to the lab.

The E. coli can be grown in large fermentation tanks, exactly like those used to brew ethanol from corn, and have also been genetically tweaked to tolerate high concentrations of BDO in their water.

This is one of the most absurd, dangerous ideas I have heard in awhile. People think oil spills are dangerous? Wait till you get thousands of gallons of E-Coli bacteria let loose from a 'spill' or worse yet terrorist attack.

They should tweak the bacteria for special living conditions only. If it's let loose in the environment it can wreak havoc like Napster said.