Researchers Discover Fungi That Can Survive on Plastic Alone
To say our planet has a bit of a plastics problem is a massive understatement as microplastics have been discovered pretty much everywhere, even inside the human body. However, part of solving that problem might include fungi that can effectively eat it.
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00:00To say our planet has a bit of a plastics problem is a massive understatement, as microplastics
00:09have been discovered pretty much everywhere, even inside the human body.
00:12However, part of solving that problem might include this, fungi that can effectively eat
00:17it.
00:18Researchers found that in Lake Stetsland in northeastern Germany, four species of fungi
00:22could use plastic as a food source.
00:24Finding their favorite meal was polyurethane, a material often used in construction foam.
00:29The fungi were also able to consume polyethylene, which plastic bags are made of.
00:33They could also consume plastics from tires.
00:36However, the fungi were much slower at breaking down those polymers.
00:39Here's researcher Hans-Peter Groszart to explain.
00:42The most surprising finding of our work, which is also different from other studies, is that
00:50our fungi could exclusively grow on some of the synthetic polymers and even form biomass.
00:58This is exceptional because it clearly demonstrates that these fungi are quite capable in degrading
01:05the synthetic polymers.
01:07So could this solve our plastics problem?
01:09Unfortunately, probably not.
01:10The researchers say from an ecology standpoint, adding new species to problem areas will likely
01:15only cause more problems.
01:17Still, these fungi could be used in sewage treatment or other controlled conditions to
01:21break down plastics.