Scientists find fungi that can eat plastic

[Judi Lynn]

12 May 2023 / Matthew Ward Agius



Amira Farzana Samat and Ali Abbas inspect a petri dish of Engyodontium album attacking polypropylene. Credit: Matthew Ward Agius/Cosmos


Researchers have found fungi that eat up widely used plastics and are now trying to scale up the process.The fungi studied in the research are common in nature – Aspergillus terreus, a soil mould and Engyodontium album – and have special enzymes that aid the breakdown of plastic.

Both can break down polypropylene, a cheap and flexible plastic used to make packaging, car parts and batteries, and is widely used in other industrial manufacturing.

The use of plastics, especially industrially, is unlikely to conclude any time soon. But with increased public awareness of the role of plastics in ecosystem pollution and as an end-product of fossil oil use, demand for less environmentally impactful materials is increasing.

To test whether their fungi would chew through plastic, the researchers pre-treated polypropylene samples with heat, ultraviolet light or Fenton’s reagent (a solution of hydrogen peroxide and iron).

More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/sustainability/scientists-find-fungi-that-can-eat-plastic/