Africa: Fungi Research Lifts Lid On Shy Organisms That Break Down Plastic

Could fungi help us deal with our plastic addiction? Scientists at London's Kew Botanical Gardens think so. The first ever State of the World's Fungi, produced by Kew Gardens and a team of around 100 scientists from 18 countries, reports that fungi successfully degrades polyurethane in a matter of weeks.

The plastic-busting potential was discovered last year by a team of scientists from China and Pakistan, who sought to isolate the fungi that were degrading polyurethane at a waste disposal site in Islamabad. The fungi were identified as aspergillus tubingensis and the scientists observed how it broke down bonds between the different polymers in weeks, rather than the decades it can take plastic to naturally disintegrate.

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