Jungle fungus eats plastic
Submitted by fyl on Wed, 2012/02/08 - 06:37.
Maybe there is hope after all. It sounds like there is a way to digest plastics that naturally occurs. While the article is specifically about a fungus found in the rainforests of Ecuador it goes on to say that it exists in other tropical and sub-tropical areas.
What caught my attention was where the Yale University team found the best fungus. I have both guava and custard apple trees here.
The winning fungal isolates came from the guava tree (Psidium guajava) and the custard apple tree (Annona muricata), though several different fungal species from a variety of trees demonstrated the ability to efficiently degrade polyurethane.
“Two Pestalotiopsis microspora isolates were uniquely able to grow on PUR as the sole carbon source under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions,” the study reports, noting that not all the P. microspora isolates shared this ability, likely due to genetic variability within the species.
im so happy
x i am so happy , first good news i hear since i was born,
scientist around the world should spend all their resources and efforts at trying to come up with a product that will be biodegradable , or a fungus that will eat all of the toxic waste and garbage flowting on the ocean.
Takes a Pest To Know a Pest?
There were so many guava trees growing wild all over Maui, Hawaii, that they were considered a pest. How delightful to think that this "pest" might save the world from the far more dangerous pest of oceans of un-biodegradable plastic! Here in Venezuela the "bring your own cloth bag" movement has not penetrated too many consciousnesses, and shops give out enough plastic bags to drown the world in them.
Bring on the army of guava pests to free the world of plastics!