Plastic-Eating Fungus May Solve World's Waste Problems

Plastic was a material invented from around 1800s-1950s as a light-weight practical material that would be for everyday use replacing materials such as glass and other various metals. Today it is most commonly used for everyday consumer goods such as bottles, toys, technologies, and frankly everything. It is fair to say that over 85% of today's production revolves around plastic and it has become an essential part of our lives. However, let’s say you drink a bottle of water per day on average, and you throw it in your garbage can, where does it end up? It ends up in landfills or even worse in our precious oceans killing species in and around the water such as birds and fish. The birds and fish eat the plastics from the ocean and as some die some are still alive with plastics in their bodies which all end up in our bodies by eating this fish. The general cycle of waste just comes back to us which means we need to preserve and conserve our environment one of the most common ways of conserving is by recycling, a method used mainly in the MEDC's while not practiced by LEDC's. However, with the rise of technologies the mankind will most likely end up finding an efficient way to reduce or store all garbage not only plastics.

Recently in a expedition to the Amazon led Yale students to discover a type of fungus which allegedly can break-down plastic. The fungus is called pestalotiopsis microspora which is according to research only break down polyurethane the most commonly used plastic especially for garden hoses, toys, foam, shoes, bags and many more. What is even better about the fungi is that it can anaerobically (without oxygen) digest polyurethane, which means that it can be used at the bottom of a landfill where there is barely oxygen which is a positive side. This finding was accidental as the purpose of exploration through the Amazon and Ecuador was for "students to experience the scientific inquiry process in a comprehensive and creative way." 

As waste management is a big problem all around the globe, these findings are beneficial to our environment because only in us 32 million tons was thrown away while only 9% was recycled. In some countries recycling rates are even below 1%, mainly LEDC's for which this fungus would be beneficial as they could set it up in landfills and not invest in plastics recycling plants.

 Article Link: http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/8922/20140908/plastic-eating-fungus-may-solve-worlds-waste-problems.htm

By Jenna Iacurci

Sep 08, 2014 10:23 AM EDT