PLASTIC EATING FUNGI DISCOVERED 0 Comments 15 MAY 2012 Plastic Eating Fungi Discovered Plastics have created a Catch 22 for modern life, allowing many of the amenities that we currently enjoy, while being damn near impossible to get to decompose. Luckily for us, the braniacs at Yale are sending their undergraduates into remote locations looking for unique organisms that can speed up plastic’s path to decomposition, and it appears they have found just the thing. As part of the University’s Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory educational program, students and professors visited the Amazon rainforest searching for plants and micro-organisms that could degrade and utilize common plastic polyurethane (PUR). Their findings discussed several fungi that showed the ability to consume and break down PUR as its only food source in anaerobic conditions (without oxygen). The published article is called ‘Biodegradation of Polyester Polyurethane by Endophytic Fungi’ for the Applied and Environmental Microbiology journal. Hopefully the fungi, if used, isn’t TOO good at its job and ends up spreading across the country. If I wake up to find a mushroom growing out of my sunglasses I am going to be pretty cranky. -Ryan
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 06:55:46 +0000
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