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Newly Discovered Fungus Could Eat the Plastic Out of Landfills

posted by CoolHand on Monday June 22 2015, @03:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the we're-sticking-with-pizza dept.

"gewg_" writes:

AlterNet reports

Thanks to a group of [students from Yale's Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry] who discovered a new type of fungus in the Ecuadorian rainforest, a semi-solution may soon be available to help speed up the decomposition process of plastics sitting in landfills.

[...]The fungus is the first one that is known to survive on polyurethane alone, and it can do so in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment, suggesting it could be used at the bottom of landfills.

[...]A large reason plastics like polyurethane take so long to break down is that microorganisms don't typically recognize it as food, therefore it can take centuries for man-made polymers to break down into microscopic granules. The discovery of Pestalotiopsis microspora may change all that.

The students of Yale isolated the enzyme that enables the fungus to break down plastic then observed its potential.

"The broad distribution of activity observed and the unprecedented case of anaerobic growth using [polyester polyurethane] as the sole carbon source suggest that endophytes are a promising source of biodiversity from which to screen for metabolic properties useful for bioremediation," they wrote in a report published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @05:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @05:24PM (#199513)

    I think they're missing the big(ger) picture. Delivering this fungus to the ocean locations that are teaming with plastics could help address a serious dilemma that is wreaking havoc on the environment. Not needing oxygen is certainly a plus.

  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by EvilSS on Monday June 22 2015, @05:35PM

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Monday June 22 2015, @05:35PM (#199518)

    Introducing a non-native species into the bowels of a landfill is bad enough, you want to dump it into the oceans as well? Because what could possibly go wrong there?

  • (Score: 2) by morgauxo on Monday June 22 2015, @05:47PM

    by morgauxo (2082) on Monday June 22 2015, @05:47PM (#199520)

    I don't think so. TFA says the fungi thrive in an environment similar to that of a landfill. The open ocean is a completely different environment. Most of the time it isn't even anarobic! I would love to see the plastic cleaned up from the ocean too but this is unlikely to be the way.